


Nothing is whole

by betsib, sandorizu



Series: Nothing is whole [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-14
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2017-12-29 09:19:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 43,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1003684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betsib/pseuds/betsib, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandorizu/pseuds/sandorizu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a keyblade master it falls to Riku to train the newest recruit, Lea. Riku would in fact prefer anything to that job. Okay, nearly anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It’s enough when I say so

**Author's Note:**

> Illustrated by [Elise](http://hyacinthess.deviantart.com). 
> 
> We used to ship these two way back when KH2 was released. Six years later 3D happened and we found our way back, which resulted in this.

“No, not like that.” Riku said, exhausted. “Don’t try to force it. _Feel it._ It will come to you, but threatening it won’t work.”

Lea made a face at him.

“Hey, I get it right half of the time, don’t I?” he said. “Cut me some slack.”

“Tell that to the thirteen Xehanorts when they attack.” Riku frowned, trying to give Lea his best “stern teacher-face” but after several hours of trying to teach Lea how to properly summon his keyblade it was getting hard to be convincing. Honestly, this was not what he’d thought he’d be doing after Yen Sid named him keyblade master. “Once more.”

Lea pouted, but that wouldn’t work on Riku. Lea wasn’t Sora. Not that it would have worked for Sora either, but still. Riku waited for a while after Lea reached out in front of him, but he was still grabbing at thin air, and Riku was losing his patience.

“Damnit!” Lea swore, tired and frustrated. “What am I doing wrong? Why won’t the bloody thing appear?”

Riku sighed, rubbing his temples. He was not cut out for teaching. Especially since he didn’t really know what to teach. For him, he never had to think much about summoning his keyblade. It just sort of appeared when he needed it, at least since he became worthy of it. He had no idea why it wasn’t working for Lea, or what he could do about it. 

Lea had been left in Riku’s charge when Mickey left for his own kingdom and Yen Sid had decided to focus on training Kairi, as she would be doing a lot of magic as a keyblade wielder. Riku secretly suspected they were just trying to get away from the responsibility of teaching Lea. Riku may not have been the best teacher, but Lea was hardly an ideal student, either.

“How about I try attacking you again?” Riku said, summoning his own keyblade without trouble. Lea gave the weapon a dirty look, and Riku leapt forward, not giving his student time to think. During their endless hours of training, this was the technique that worked most often. At other times however…

There was a metallic “chunk” and the smell of something burning as his keyblade met with the chakrams in Lea’s hands. Riku retreated as Lea let out a scream of frustration and threw the chakrams forcefully on the ground.

“Why isn’t it working?” he asked again, in a choked whisper. Riku had no answer for him.

“Let’s call it a day.” he said instead. “We’ll figure something out tomorrow.”

Lea snorted, but joined Riku as he started to walk back to the tower. Maybe Sora would be back soon.

Later that evening Yen Sid called Riku to his study at the top of the tower, saying he had news. Riku passed Kairi on his way up the stairs, and she greeted him with a quick smile as she hurried down, carrying a large book in one hand and a keyblade in the other. _The perfect student._ Riku scowled as he proceeded to knock on the door to the study. No wonder the sly bastard had preferred to train her instead of Lea.

The bastard in question was sitting behind his desk as Riku entered. He was apparently in the middle of reading a book even larger than the one Kairi had been carrying, but he looked up when Riku came through the door.

“You had news?” Riku asked, getting straight to the point before Yen Sid could ask something along the lines of ‘How is your student doing’. The old wizard frowned a little at his rudeness.

“King Mickey sent a letter. It appears like a large number of previously sleeping worlds have woken up.” Yen Sid said. “We need to send someone to investigate the situation. I had hoped to send Sora.”

“I’ll go!” Riku volunteered immediately. Getting away from the tower for a while would be wonderful. Away from all the rules, his own lessons and Lea. Especially Lea. Sora could come join him in the other worlds when he got back.

“Yes, I thought you might.” Yen Sid said, absentmindedly running his fingers through his beard. “However, there is also the issue of the Keyblade master, Aqua. Someone needs to find a safe passage into the realm of darkness to search for her. Such a door is not easily found.”

“So I’ll look for one at the same time.” Riku said, quite eager now. He was itching to start his journey already, having been stuck in the tower for god knows how long. Months maybe. Or weeks at least. Too long, in any case.

“Hmm.” Yen Sid said. “Yes, I believe that is the best way to proceed. Very well, you may leave in the morning.”

“I will.” Riku smiled. “I’ll report back regularly.”

Riku turned around to leave, but Yen Sid spoke again.

“One more thing, master Riku.” he said. “Take Lea with you. I believe visiting some new worlds would be beneficial to his progress.”

Riku’s heart sank. He turned around to protest, but Yen Sid had returned his book again, dismissing Riku in the process. Riku swore under his breath as he exited the study and started to make his way down the stairs again. 

He found Lea in the kitchen, leaning back with his boots on the table while eating something vaguely green and jelly-like.

“What’s up?” Lea asked when he noticed Riku in the doorway. “Something piss you off?”

“Pack your bags.” Riku said. “You and I are leaving tomorrow morning. A mission.”

“Yes, finally!” Lea exclaimed, almost jumping up from his chair. “I can’t wait to get out of here!”

Riku watched the other’s excitement in silence. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe Yen Sid was right about Lea learning on the job. Riku supposed he should give Lea a chance, but still. He would rather have gone with Sora.

 

“Going through the darkness would be faster.” Lea said for the fifth time. Riku sighed.

“I’ve told you.” he started with a strained voice. “If you want to be a keyblade wielder you can’t just hop through the darkness all the time. It would be incredibly dangerous, especially since you’re new at this. Do you want to end up like Xehanort?”

“Point taken.” Lea said sullenly. “But this is taking forever. And there’s hardly any leg space at all. Did they seriously fit three guys in this thing?”

“Three _small_ guys.” Riku said. “And there’s space in the back. Go lie down there if you’re tired.”

“I’m not tired, I’m bored.” Lea said. “Can I at least drive for a while?”

“No.” Riku said sternly, feeling more like a parent than a teacher for a moment. “And we’re almost there. Look. You can see the world already.”

“That’s it?” Lea said, half rising in his seat while looking out the window. “I would have thought it was a monster or something. It looks so small from here.”

Riku shook his head, but decided not to comment. He told Lea to sit down again as he prepared the ship for landing. It seemed to be a jungle planet of some sort, so finding a good place to land was hard. Eventually he did find a field of some kind, and they watched strange hairy animals hop away as the ship lowered to the ground.

“Finally!” Lea exclaimed as soon as they had landed. “I’m getting out of here.”

Riku hadn’t seen anyone move that fast since his last fight with Xemnas. He barely had time to blink before Lea had run up from his chair and out the door. He sighed again as he followed at a more reasonable pace.

Riku found Lea standing still outside the ship, apparently enjoying the strong wind as he looked around the field.

“This place kinda smells.” He said when Riku joined him.

“It’s probably because of the animals we saw.” Riku said, wrinkling his nose. “Some kind of livestock, I guess.”

“Yeah? Well, let’s go see if we can find some people. Or heartless.” Lea grinned. “I’d settle for heartless.”

After a few hours of exploring, they had found quite a number of the hairy animals and a single overly friendly squirrel, but mostly jungle. No people, heartless or otherwise. 

“Seriously, does nobody live here?” Lea said tiredly. “Let’s go to the next world instead.”

“Hold on.” Riku said, narrowing his eyes. “I think that’s a road over there.”

It was, and the road led upwards, towards a large gap between two cliffs. Looking down, Riku could see a river run some hundred meters beneath him. There was bridge leading to the other side. If the unstable-looking mass of planks and ropes actually qualified as a bridge. 

“Oh, hell no.” Lea said with horror in his voice. “I’m not crossing that!”

Riku was bound to agree with him, but he could see the silhouette of a city far away on the other side of the bridge. A city meant people, possibly people in need of help.

“There are fresh wheel-tracks leading up to it.” Riku said thoughtfully. “Somebody crossed the bridge with a wagon recently, so it should be safe. I’m going.”

Riku saw Lea clench his teeth together tightly as he looked at the sorry excuse for a bridge again. Then he nodded sternly.

“If I die I’ll kill you.” he said, then proceeded to push Riku aside as he ventured out on the bridge. Riku blinked in surprise, then smiled slightly. Apparently Lea had decided he could do anything Riku could. That sort of stubbornness reminded him of Sora, briefly. Although Sora wouldn’t have spent the entire walk across the bridge swearing loudly to himself.

The bridge creaked loudly under their feet, but both of them made it across safely. The long walk up to the city felt almost anticlimactic after that. Which probably only added to the surprise that met them when they finally got closer. 

The first signs of life they encountered ended up being Heartless creeping out of the city. The closer they got the more of them they saw and there were kinds Riku had never encountered before. 

With one look at each other they started running to reach the city walls faster. There was something very off with this newly reawakened world if the Heartless were still appearing from somewhere.

“Get that keyblade out, Lea”, Riku shouted as he summoned his own, already hitting the first Heartless they reached, smashing them into oblivion. 

“I’m trying, you idiot!” came the annoyed reply, but soon Riku felt a sudden heat surge next to him followed by a “fuck this shit”, telling him that once again the chakrams had appeared instead of the Keyblade. Well, right then it didn’t matter much as long as the Heartless got squashed.

“Never mind that, just fight!”

“Yeah yeah.”

They fought their way through the swarm, ridding the area of every Heartless that came close. Soon it was clear that they were all coming from inside the city and Riku could now see people through the city gate. 

“We better head inside”, Riku shouted.

“Go, I’ll follow. You’re hair clashes so bad with the surroundings I’ll see you a mile away.”

“What?”

“Never mix silver and gold”, Lea explained and nodded towards what could be seen through the gate. Everything was decorated with large amounts of gold and it looked like the whole city was shining, a golden aura covering it. With the exception of the Heartless roaming the streets. And the people running away from them.

Riku gave Lea a quick glare before running in through the gates, hoping that Lea would follow him.

When reaching the first Heartless on the inside his concentration was again interrupted, this time by a loud “FUCK YEAH”. He timed a quick check over his shoulder and what he saw made a grin spread over his face.

“Good job!” he shouted back, as Lea took out a bunch of Heartless, this time releasing their captured hearts. The monsters disappeared, leaving only the shining heart to slowly float up into the sky. 

After saving a few children from some shadows that had surrounded them Riku tried asking where the creatures came from, without much luck. The children seemed as scared of him as they had been of the shadows.

“We want to stop them, where are they coming from?” He tried, nicely. The children only mumbled something about an emperor before hurrying away.

“I think that would be it”, Lea drawled and Riku looked towards where he was pointing.  
In the middle of the city an almost completely golden castle rose high above the rest of the buildings. Out of some sort of opening in one wall came an even, strong stream of Heartless. It reminded Riku of the World That Never Was just a bit too much.

“I think you’re right.”

Helping more people along the way they ran towards the castle. Lea never let his keyblade disappear, probably not wanting to risk being unable to summon it again. In the area surrounding the castle they ran into what looked like guards fighting the creatures that were now everywhere. Both Riku and Lea joined their fight, but there seemed to be no end to the monsters.

An incredibly large Heartless hit Lea in the back, too fast for him to react to Riku’s warning, and he stumbled over, losing his grip on the Keyblade and causing it to disappear. Swearing, he regained his balance and tried resummoning it, this time with no success. Quickly Riku fired a spell in his direction, taking out the large Heartless that was still attacking Lea.

Suddenly a whole line of them were swept away in a wave of fire followed by a shouted “I don’t need your help, twat!” and Riku couldn’t help the small smile. At least the guy could fight.

And even more suddenly they were surrounded by the guards.

“Such sorcery! Are you accomplices of Yzma?”

“I don’t know any Yzmas” Lea drawled while taking out some more Heartless that the guards had now completely forgotten about, probably saving a few of their lives in the process.

Before they knew it they were being led off into the castle, Lea protesting loudly and Riku trying to shut him up with death glares. It didn't work.

"Did you find her? Tell me you found her!"

The owner of the voice was lying over a golden throne, legs dangling over one arm rest and an arm covering his face in an overly dramatic manner.

"Apologies, your highness, but we did not..."

"Then why are you here?!" The man sat up suddenly, black hair swinging from the movement and eyes instantly trained on the guards.

"Emperor Kuzco we... We found these men. They possess great sorcery."

"So what? We need to find Yzma!" The man who seemed to be the emperor flung himself back into a lying position mumbling something about "Pacha never being there when he needed him".

Riku cleared his throat.

"Emperor... Kuz... Your highness, may I ask when did these ...creatures appear?"

Kuzco uncovered his face again and narrowed his eyes, looking straight at Riku.

"Who are you if you don't know?"

"Someone who'd like to help."

Kuzco snorted. "Two days of light, and now Yzma's going haywire again. They're coming out of her lab."

"What, restored for two days and the heartless are back?"

Riku sighed. "Shut up, Lea." Lea's mouth snapped shut but Kuzco had already reacted.

"Heartless? Is that what they're called? They have graced us with their annoying presence once before, but we didn't know what to call them. Didn't feel like naming something so foul after myself." The emperor was waving his hands around while talking, illustrating his point with body language. It reminded Riku of Lea a little bit and he barely withheld a snort.

"Could we investigate the source of these heartless? This lab?"

"Wait!" A finger flew into the air. "Someone mentioned sorcery. Only Yzma knows that. Where are you two from?" The emperor's eyes were narrowed into slits, suspicion showing all over.

"Busted" Lea mumbled next to Riku. Riku sighed for what felt like the thousandth time that day.

"We're not from around here, no. But we're here to get rid of those Heartless, no matter what brought them here."

Kuzco was quiet for a little while before his hands flew up into the air in a gesture of resignation.

"Fiiiiiine. Just take them to the lab. And find that goddamn Yzma, I want to turn her into something way uglier than a cat!"

“Now who’s planning on using sorcery.” Lea muttered under his breath while the guards led them away again. They walked down an insane amount of stairs before they stopped in front of a wall decorated with the head of an ugly gargoyle with two long fangs facing upwards. On the right fang hung a sign saying “wrong lever” in bold letters. 

“We’re not going down there.” one of the guards said. “You two can go on. Just pull the left lever, and don’t touch anything while you’re down there.”

Riku exchanged a rather worried look with Lea before stepping forward and pulling the lever. Both of them yelled in surprise as the floor rose to push them forward to the other side of the wall. They landed in a strange wagon that reminded Riku of the amusement park in Pinocchio's sleeping world.

“What the hell was thaaaaaaah!” Lea started and begun screaming as the wagon spiraled downwards at an incredible speed. Riku barely had time to react before it came to an abrupt stop, sending both of them flying and, strangely enough, landing on their feet.

“Well, I understand why the guards didn’t want to follow us.” Riku said shakingly. “I’m never doing that again.”

“Are you kidding? That was awesome!” Lea said, grinning rather manically. Riku gave him a brief look of disbelief before he realised how dark the room in front of him was. And the darkness was moving.

“We’ve got company.” he said, and Lea’s grin got wider.

“Better and better.” he said. Riku frowned.

“Not unless you can summon that keyblade of yours, it won’t be.” Riku said sternly, summoning his own blade and ignoring the swearing that started up behind him again. The darkness had noticed them, and crept steadily closer.

“Fire!” Riku shouted, casting the spell in the general direction of the darkness to assess the number of opponents. “Oh shit.”

Behind him Lea gave up his attempts and summoned his chakrams instead.  
“You take the hundred on the left, I take the hundred on the right?” Lea said, still a bit irritated but nevertheless excited about the whole thing.

“Deal.” Riku agreed, then lunged forward and took out three shadows with one swing. The new, bigger heartless were tougher, and had an annoying tendency to try to gore him with their horns. They rather reminded Riku of cows, to be honest, and once he dodged the attack they were completely open for a few seconds. None of the heartless was a threat, really, but there were just so _many of them._

The fight still went rather well, until almost all of the smaller heartless were gone. Then, suddenly, something big that Riku had believed to be a shelf of some kind started moving. As far as heartless went, this one was pretty strange, all flowy pink neon lines and a really angry face in the middle. It didn’t have a weapon, thankfully, but it sure used its surroundings to its advantage. That is to say, it threw both furniture and the remaining heartless around like crazy.

“Heads up!” Riku shouted to warn Lea while simultaneously dodging one of the cow-like heartless flying in his general direction. The large heartless didn’t actually seem to be aiming at them. Instead it just threw things around at random, which ironically made it harder to dodge.

Riku and Lea attacked in turns, trying to find a weak spot and trying to avoid getting hit. Sometimes, when the heartless threw a shelf, small pink explosions would occur.

“I don’t know what that is but I really don’t want to be hit by it.” Lea said, using his chakrams for ranged attack while Riku got up close. Hitting the eyes seemed to do most damage, so that’s what they were concentrating on. The heartless soon got weaker and more desperate, so Riku got ready to deliver the finish blow.

He jumped up in the air and hit the heartless in the eye keyblade first with his entire weight behind it, when a sudden yell from Lea momentarily distracted him. He turned his head to see Lea preparing to get back up from the ground to face the four cow heartless that had surrounded him. Riku looked forward again just in time to see a shelf flying towards him, the last attack from the dying heartless beneath him. The impact threw him off his feet, but before he hit the ground he was surrounded by an explosion of pink. 

“Shit, Riku!” Lea yelled somewhere far away, and Riku blacked out for a minute.

When Riku came to again Lea was kneeling beside him, his face not so much concerned as... amused? In fact he looked very much like he wanted to laugh. Riku didn’t understand why, did he have a funny bump or something?

“You ok?” Lea asked, his voice strained by held-back laughter. Riku frowned at him.

“I’m fine. What’s so funny?” Riku asked, irritated.

“You don’t know? Oh, man!” Lea said and laughed, apparently unable to hold it back anymore. “Look at yourself!”

Riku did. He looked at his hands, only they weren’t hands anymore. They were hooves, and his whole body seemed to be covered in fine silver hair. He tried to stand up, but found it was impossible to keep his balance. Standing on all fours felt much more natural, and that was just _wrong_. In so many ways.

“What the hell” Riku said with feigned calmness, while shaking with anger. “happened to me?”

“I have no idea.” Lea said, still laughing but apparently trying his best to stop. It didn’t make Riku feel any better. “You were hit by one of those pink explosions. I told you they were bad news.”

“Yeah, thanks for that.” Riku muttered. “The emperor better have an explanation for this, and a way to turn me back to normal, or so help me I will...”

“What? Chew on his hair?” Lea said. “You don’t exactly look dangerous. Let me do the threatening. I’m better at it anyway.”

“Whatever. Let’s get out of here.”


	2. And this perfect world will spin

The emperor seemed to be just as amused as Lea was by the whole thing. He was lying almost upside-down on his throne by the time he had finished laughing.

“That’s some quality wool you got on you there, buddy.” he finally said. “I have a friend who likes to crochet, she’d love some yarn made of that, I’m sure.”

Lea, who had been no help whatsoever, started laughing again. Riku glared at him.

“Can you fix it or not?” Riku asked, getting angrier by the minute. 

“Of course I can, I’m the emperor.” Kuzco said merrily. “That happened to me too once, you know. Though I made a prettier llama than you do, definitely. I made sure to obtain some extra human-potion, just in case it ever happened again. ”

“So give me some.”

“Ah, but I can’t just give it to you _yet._ ” Kuzco said, holding up a finger in the air and looking smug. “You need to do something for me first. Mutual back scratching, and all that. Which feels great as a llama by the way. You should ask your buddy to do that for you. ”

“No thanks.” Riku said sternly. “And we did you a favour already, cleaning out the heartless in your basement. Just give me the potion.”

“Uh-uh.” Kusco said, shaking his head. “You two know about these creatures. So, naturally, you know how to get rid of them for good. Do that, and I’ll give you the potion.”

“We were going to do that anyway.” Riku said. “It’ll go easier if I’m human to do it.”

“Umm... How are we doing that, exactly?” Lea asked, having finally stopped laughing.

“We find the keyhole and seal it. But for that I need to be able to use my keyblade.” Riku explained, and Lea frowned.

“I could seal it.” He said.

“You’re not exactly reliable with your summoning.” Riku said. “You couldn’t even get it out back there, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to seal the keyhole when we find it.”

“I could do it.” Lea said stubbornly, and Riku opened his mouth to speak, but Kuzco interrupted them.

“I hate it when people ignore me. I am still the emperor, after all.” he said. “And this seems to be stuff I should be informed about. What and where is this ‘’keyhole”, anyway?”

“It’s the heart of the world, basically, and the heartless’ entry point.” Riku said. “It needs to be sealed to stop the flow of heartless. Well, radically diminish it, anyway.”

“And I take it it wasn’t down in the lab. Hmm.” Kuzco said, rolling around to lie on his stomach and looking thoughtful. “The heart of this world. By all rights it should be me, or at least the palace. If not it’s probably at Pacha’s village.”

“Pacha?” Riku asked, and the emperor grinned at him.

“My fat, funny friend Pacha’s village, west of the palace. Bit of a walk, but you’ll manage.” he said. “And you’ll fit right in around there. They herd llamas at the village.”

“You’re really not going to give me the potion now.” Riku said in disbelief.

“Naaaah.” Kuzco said, waving his hand as if he was dismissing the whole thing. “Your buddy can handle it. Besides, Pacha’s got a batch of the potion too, for safekeeping. He’ll give it to you once you’re finished.”

With that said, the emperor called his guards again to send them on their way, with detailed instructions on how to find the village.

“What an asshole!” Riku muttered as they made their way through the streets again.

“Don’t worry, I can do this.” Lea said confidently. “You’ll see.”

“I feel so reassured.” Riku said dryly, and Lea glared at him.

“Well, if I had had a better _teacher_...” Lea begun, and Riku scowled.

“The better teacher decided Kairi was the better student.” he said. “So don’t blame me. I never wanted to teach in the first place.”

“You’re still a lousy teacher.”

“You’re a worse student.”

“At least I wasn’t the one who got himself turned into a llama.” Lea said maliciously. 

Riku took a deep breath, realising that fighting, as much as he wanted to, really wouldn’t help the situation. Lousy or not, he was supposed to be the teacher.

“I’ve been worse.” Riku said, trying to make it sound like a joke while still being angry. “I was Ansem for a while. Or Xehanort’s heartless. Llama is a step up.”

Lea stared at him for a second, then laughed. 

“I don’t know what that emperor was talking about, it’s a good look on you.” he said, reaching out to pet Riku on the head. “You’ve never looked so cute.”

“I’ll bite you.” Riku warned him, and Lea laughed as he removed his hand. “Sora never hears about this, ok? Never!” 

“Oooukay.” Lea sang, not even trying to be convincing. Riku glared at him.

“I mean it. If you tell him, I’ll...oh, shit.” Riku said. “I just realised we’re going to have to cross that bridge again.”

“Oh hell, no.” Lea swore. “There’s got to be another way across.”

“I sure didn’t seem like it last time.” Riku muttered.

It didn’t seem like it this time either, and balancing the narrow bridge on four legs instead of two was way harder than it should have been. Riku figured he didn’t really have the whole llama-thing down yet. Not that he actually wanted to. And the more he thought about it the more difficult it became.

Lea, who had crossed first and was waiting on the other side, suddenly started to move his hands in strange motions, looking frustrated.

“Hurry up, Riku!” He yelled. “And don’t look back.”

_Shit!_ He was trying, and failing, to summon his keyblade again, which meant... Riku didn’t have to look to know there were heartless coming up behind him. He moved forward as quickly as he could. It was easier now, somehow, when he wasn’t concentrating so hard on it. He managed to run the last few meters of the bridge and Lea immediately jumped forward, chakrams in hand, to slash at his pursuers. However, there were many of them, and some made it past him, aiming straight at Riku. 

A flyer swooped down towards his head, and Riku’s attempt at ducking almost threw him of balance. He hadn’t felt so helpless in years.

“A little help here?” he shouted, and seconds later a chackram took the flyer out, but Lea had other heartless to deal with as well. A shadow was tugging at Riku’s legs and he angrily kicked in it’s direction, to no avail. 

_A fucking shadow!_ he thought in disbelief. _Helpless, against a fucking SHADOW!_

The thought made him angry, and he turned towards it, planning to try and bite its head off. 

CLANK! 

Instead of the soft skin of a heartless Riku felt the taste of metal between his teeth, and saw the released heart of the defeated shadow float upwards before him.

“Oh, now that’s just not _fair!_ ” Lea moaned, looking jealously at the keyblade in Rikus mouth. Riku would have grinned at his expression, had he not had his mouth full. And more shadows creeping up behind him.

It was the most ungraceful fight Riku had ever experienced. With his keyblade being no shorter than usual, he could barely move it at all with his neck, and his new body was resisting any agile move he tried to make. Riku was pretty sure he had killed at least two shadows by falling on top off them by the time the fight was over.

“My teeth hurts.” Riku complained sullenly when he could talk again. 

“Well, you’re a herbivore, your teeth aren’t made to chew hard things, I guess.” Lea said, still looking a bit put off by the fact that Riku was still able to summon his keyblade after all.

“Whatever. Next fight, you handle on your own.” Riku said, and Lea visibly perked up at that.

“Can I still seal the keyhole, too?” he asked, strangely excited. Riku laughed.

“If you can get it out.” he said. “Doesn’t look promising right now.”

“I can do it. You’ll see.”

Riku still wasn’t convinced, but he let it slide. He’d let Lea give it a try before taking care of it. Maybe then he’d stop nagging at least. And then they could just find that Pacha as soon as possible and get Riku back to normal. Every second he had to stay as a llama was one second too much.

The sun had gone down during their fight at the bridge, and despite the stars it was quite dark. The road faded into blackness where the jungle started. Riku wasn’t looking forward to going in there, but he was looking forward to being human again. 

“You sure you want to go in there?” Lea asked, echoing his thoughts and actually looking a bit concerned. “There are probably predators, and you’re, well...”

“I expect a torch would keep them at bay.” Riku said. “We’re just as much in danger from heartless here as we are from predators in there, anyway.”

“If you say so.” Lea said, lighting one of his chakrams on fire to serve as a torch. “You better stay close, though.”

Riku didn’t answer, fearing he might say something mean again and start another fight. Being so dependant on someone else was irritating to say the least. If it had been Sora or Mickey it would have been fine, but this was Lea. Riku did trust him, to some extent, but he didn’t really know him. Being dependant on someone he didn’t know put him in a worse mood than the whole llama-thing had. Lea seemed to sense it, as he didn’t say anything else for a long time.

Even with the light from Lea’s chakram Riku could barely see five meters in front of him. On the other hand, he did hear a lot of noise from the surrounding darkness. An instinct he suspected he had inherited from his current body made him want to panic and run away. Riku resolutely pushed the thought away.

“So...” Lea begun, apparently tired of being quiet. “How do you seal a keyhole, anyway? Anything I should know?”

“You need a keyblade.” Riku said, and Lea made a face at him. “There’s not much else to it. Sora is fond of twirling his keyblade around a lot first, but it’s not necessary. He just likes to show off.”

“You two are really close, aren’t you?” Lea said, sounding rather wistful. Riku shrugged, which must have looked funny on a llama.

“We’ve been friends since we were kids.” he said. “And he’s not exactly difficult to get along with.”

“Very true.” Lea laughed. “He’s quite special, isn’t he?”

Riku gave him a suspicious look, but Lea seemed lost in thought, looking rather sad. Riku doubted it was actually Sora he was thinking about.

There was an angry growl uncomfortably close to them in the jungle, quickly followed by the inhuman shriek of something dying. Riku swallowed, fighting harder against the instincts now. Maybe it wasn’t just him feeling it, though.

“How far do we have to walk in this fucking jungle?” Lea muttered nervously beside him. Heartless were one thing, but actual predators, especially hunting in packs, could be serious trouble. Riku started walking a little faster.

“According to that guard at the palace, it shouldn’t be too long.” he said.

“Those guard’s were all muscle and no brains.” Lea scowled. “Seriously, did you see those body proportions? On every single one of them?”

“Maybe they’re breeding them.” Riku said, laughing nervously. “They all seemed to have pretty much the same face as well, though that may have been the body paint.”

“Strange world.” Lea nodded, grinning with slightly too many teeth. “Though nor the strangest one I’ve been to. I remember one.... wait, is that a light?”

“Finally!” Riku sighed, relieved, as they reached the end of the jungle and could see the open sky again. There were a few lights shining from the village ahead as well, but it was still pretty far off. They climbed the first hill overlooking the jungle, then stopped at the same time and looked at each other. Simultaneously both of them sank down to sit on the ground.

“Phew.” Lea said, lighting a small campfire in front of them. “I don’t mind fighting, but walking around waiting to be attacked is just not my thing.”

“At least you’d be able to properly defend yourself. I’m a llama.” Riku said tiredly. “I wish that potion could at least have turned me into something a little bit tougher.”

“Yeah, being a wolf or a lion would be pretty awesome, wouldn’t it?” Lea grinned. Riku smiled.

“Ask Sora to take you to the Pridelands at some point. He’s apparently great friends with the leader of the lions there.”

“Seriously? Sora is friends with a lion?” Lea said, then shrugged. “Nah, I can’t even act surprised.”

When the sun started raising they started walking again. Both of them were tired from not having slept at all during the night, but they wanted to get it over with quickly. Riku especially was very keen on getting his body back as soon as possible. 

The village was small, maybe twenty houses total. It seemed peaceful too, though burned edges on the houses and broken boxes and jars here and there bore witness of an attack not too long ago. Heartless, probably.

Two old men playing some kind of board game outside directed them to Pacha’s house up on the hill. When they reached it they saw a pretty woman sitting on porch, crocheting. She had a cradle with a small baby beside her. The woman looked suspiciously up at them as they approached.

“Can I help you?” she asked politely, but with edge, letting them know that she wasn’t one to mess with.

“We’re looking for Pacha, is he around?” Lea said. The woman still seemed suspicious. 

“Maybe. What do you want with my husband? And who are ’we’?” She asked.

“We want to help you with those creatures that have been attacking lately, but we need your husband’s help.” Lea said. “Also he’s supposed to have a potion that can turn people human again.”

Her eyes widened slightly in surprise, then she turned to look at Riku.

“Hello.” he said tiredly. 

“Oh my.” she said with a smile, looking like not laughing was way harder than it should have been. Riku seemed to be the only one who didn’t find this unfortunate event funny at all. 

“Well, I’m sad to say Pacha won’t be home for another couple of hours, he’s off herding the llamas...” 

_Of course_ , Riku thought.

“...But you are welcome to wait here until he comes back.”

Riku was just about to say yes, but Lea was quicker. Well, llamas weren’t made for talking. 

“Thanks, but we need to find something.”

“If it’s just a couple of hours we could...” Riku tried, really not wanting to hunt for the keyhole as a llama, which seemed to be what Lea was suggesting. And even though Sora did twirl his keyblade around way too much, Riku wasn’t entirely sure he could pull off the little movements that were actually needed in this shape. So they might just have to wait for Pacha anyway, even if they did find the keyhole before he came back.

“I can lock the keyhole and I will.” Lea said, as if he’d been reading Riku’s thoughts. Riku turned to look at him, about to protest, but Lea was staring straight at him with nothing but determination on his face. And Riku knew when a battle was lost.

“Fine. Let’s find the damn keyhole.” He then turned to Pacha’s wife who was watching them curiously. “We’ll be back in a couple of hours then, thank you for the offer.”

When Riku turned around to leave Lea looked just a bit too pleased. It pissed Riku off.

They didn’t have to search long. Finding the keyhole ended up being a much easier task than they ever could have imagined. So easy and obvious that now, as Riku was staring at the actual keyhole, he felt like the whole world was laughing at him. There was really no other explanation.

“...Well, llamas are clearly super important here, so I guess, they’re the heart of this world? You should be honoured, really.” Lea said while waving his hand in the general direction of the llama statue in the middle of the village. The statue that also happened to house the Keyhole. 

“I’m humbled.” Riku spat, through gritted llama teeth.

“As you should be.” Lea smirked. Riku really wanted to punch him.

“Shut up and get your Keyblade out then, if you’re so set on locking it.”

“It wouldn’t kill you to have some confidence in me, you know.” Lea muttered, starting his attempts to summon the keyblade again. Riku sighed.

“I will when you give me a reason to.” he said. Lea scowled and tried for a while longer, with no success.

“Goddamnit!” he finally screamed in frustration, then covered his face and sank down on the ground. “Why wont it work?”

“Lea...” Riku said quietly. “Why is this so important to you? What are you trying to prove?”

Lea looked up at him, shrugging slightly as if he didn’t know, or didn’t want Riku to. Riku frowned.

“If you’re doing this for yourself only, it won’t work.” Riku said. “Are you trying to prove something to me, or do you genuinely want to help?”

Lea was quiet, looking down at his hands with desperate eyes. “I don’t know.” he said finally. “I don’t really know these people well enough to care about them, but there are others... others I want to protect. But how can I, if I can’t even do this, if I can’t even summon my keyblade when...oh!”

The keyblade appeared in Lea’s hand, like he’d never had any trouble with it at all. Lea just stared at it for a while, a slow grin spreading across his face.Then he looked triumphantly at Riku, who rolled his eyes at the expression of utter joy on Lea’s face.

“Keyhole. Now.” Riku said, and Lea looked a bit sheepish, as if he had forgotten about the whole thing.

Lea, it turned out, was even more fond of showing off than Sora. He performed what could only be described as a short dance number, complete with special effects in the form of flames, before the keyhole finally clicked shut. 

“I did it!” Lea sang happily. “I really did it!”

“Yes, you did.” Riku said. “Good work. Now let’s go see if Pacha is home. I really want that potion.”

 

When they came back to the house on the hilltop Pacha was waiting for them outside, with a vial of potion in his hands.

“My wife told me everything.” he said. “I can’t believe Kuzco didn’t give you the potion immediately. Seriously, trying to blackmail you into helping out...” he trailed off, shaking his head exasperatedly.

“Doesn’t matter. The job is done!” Lea said, still grinning happily. Riku was less enthusiastic.

“Please just give me the potion now.” he said.

“Of course, of course. Let me just get the lid off for you...there you go!”

There was an all too familiar explosion of pink, then Riku found himself sitting on the ground. 

“Aw, but I liked you better as a llama.” Lea said, but Riku ignored him. He was too busy appreciating his own legs and arms in a way that would never have occurred to him before.

“My wife is currently preparing dinner.” Pacha said. “You two are welcome to join us, as thanks for all your help.”

Riku would have declined, wanting nothing more than to get off the world as fast as possible before he could get turned into something else, but Lea was quicker, again.

“Yes, please! I’m starving!” he exclaimed, and there were no going back. Then again, Riku was quite hungry too. It had been a while since they had last eaten. Or slept. 

The dinner was quite enjoyable, even if Pacha’s two older kids were hyperactive and asked a myriad of questions. The food was also good, though Riku had been a little unsure at first, until Pacha’s wife, Chicha, knowingly assured him that there were no llama meat in any of the dishes. 

By the time they had all finished eating the sun was already going down, and Riku and Lea gratefully accepted the offer to stay the night. The guest room was small and situated right next to the children’s room, so they could hear the little rascals complain about having to go to bed early. There was only one bed in the room, but it was big, and both Riku and Lea were too tired to care. Lea was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, and Riku followed only moments later. 

Riku was startled awake in the middle of the night by a loud ‘thud’ coming from the other side of the wall, followed by stifled laughter. He tried to ignore it and closed his eyes again, fully intending to go back to sleep. Then the sound of claws against the wooden floor made him sit up straight in the bed, all senses alert. The sudden movement woke Lea as well.

“Something’s up.” Riku whispered quietly, getting up from the bed. Lea followed him without a word to the children’s room. The door was slightly ajar. Riku pushed it open soundlessly, and though he saw something moving, but except for the children sitting up in their beds there was nobody in the room.

“I thought I heard something. What happened?” he asked the children. The girl tittered a bit.

“It was just the funny monster. Nothing to worry about.” she said.

“Monster?” Lea repeated, sounding vaguely amused.

“Yeah, the funny monster.” the boy said. “He comes out of the closet sometimes.”

Riku exchange a quick look with Lea, before walking up to the closet and, after a moment’s hesitation, opened the door. 

“See, nothing there.” Lea said, smirking at the kids, but Riku shook his head. The inside of the closet was dark, but it was too dark, somehow. Like a camouflage. He reached out and realised he was right.

“I’m going through.” He said, then stepped into the closet.

“Wait, wha...?” Lea said behind him, then heard him swear as he followed.


	3. One without the other

What met them on the other side was confusing to say the least. It was a large, brightly lit hall. The door they’d gone through was just one of many doors standing in a straight line, apparently not leading anywhere but hooked up to machines. It seemed to be some kind of industry, but Riku couldn’t for the life of him understand what they were producing.

Then he saw the workers, and the workers saw him. Riku’s first reaction, an instinct by now, was to summon his keyblade. However, he wasn’t used to the monsters starting to scream in fear the moment they saw him. He blinked in surprise as all the monsters started to run in the opposite direction.

“ADULTS!! ADULTS!!” they were screaming as they ran away, only causing Riku even more confusion. What was this place? The whole area emptied out amazingly quickly and Riku turned to Lea, who was right behind him now.

“What the heck is up.”

“They think you’re an adult. Clearly they’re mistaken.” That earned him a glare.

“How helpful of you.”

“Well, I got nothing, we’ll have to catch one to ask, I guess.”

Riku shrugged and let his keyblade disappear. That would at least help making them less intimidating to the creatures of this world. And there didn’t seem to be anything that looked like Heartless. 

“Let’s just look around” he muttered and walked over to the next door in the long line. If the door they came through lead to a closet in Llama Land, where did all these other doors lead? 

Carefully he pushed the door open. It was surprisingly heavy, a very thick, solid tree door. As he peeked through his eyes were met by what looked like the insides of a stone castle. There were countless decorations on the walls and in one corner was a large bed. In which something covered mostly in red, curly hair was sleeping. Oh.

Riku pulled back from the door and closed it carefully behind him. Had that been--

“Hey, I wanna see too! What was there?”

“I think-- I think all these doors lead to different worlds.”

“Really?” Lea exclaimed and pushed the same door open to see the same room Riku had just seen. This time the girl sat up and stared straight at Lea. 

“Uhh, sorry, wrong closet, see you..!” he mumbled and closed the door behind him as quickly as possible, leaning his back against it afterwards. “I think you’re right. That was not here and it wasn’t Llama Land either.”

“I wonder...” Riku furrowed his brows, thinking over what they’d just witnessed. Maybe, just maybe, this would be the place to find a door to the dark realm? If all of these doors led to different world maybe there was one for the Dark Realm too. 

“My suggestion of catching one and asking them still stands.” Lea mentioned, clearly having a good idea of what Riku was thinking. “I bet I can catch one faster than you.”

“Keep dreaming.” 

Then the race was on. They went of in different directions, chasing the monsters that still fled at the sight of them, screaming about adults. Riku sort of wished Sora was there. Nobody would ever have taken Sora for an adult.

Most of the monsters had already managed to escape from the hall before they even caught up to any, and the remaining ones were way too quick. Not all of them escaped out of the area, instead they ran around in circles, as if they were waiting for someone to save them. This went on until suddenly a loud roar filled the whole hall, freezing both Riku and Lea in their tracks.

The roar came from a huge, blue and furry monster with purple spots and horns on its head. It was holding a clipboard in its hand and looked very confused.

“What is going _ON_?”

And just as suddenly all the monsters in the room were pointing straight at them. 

“Hiya.” Lea said with a nervous laugh, waving a hand awkwardly in the blue monster's direction. The monster stared at them for a moment, then sighed.

“Ok, who left a door unattended?” he asked the room. Nobody answered, but about half of them looked guilty. The monster shook his head.

“Nevermind then.” he said,then turned towards Riku and Lea. “Look, I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to go back where you came from. We’re trying to run a business here, and you’re scaring the workers.”

“What kind of business?” Riku asked.

“Yeah, what were you guys doing in the children’s closet?” Lea inflicted, still wearing a broad grin as if he found the whole situation funny. “Trying to scare them?”

“No, no. Not anymore.” the blue monster said. “We’re making them laugh, their laughter power up our houses.”

“So you come out of closets in Llama land and make children laugh. That’s kinda weird.”

“Llama land?” the monster repeated. “That’s where you came from? No, our doors lead anywhere, to any world where there are children. ” 

“I take it you’re in charge here.” Riku said. “Perhaps you can help me. I’m looking for a rather specific door.”

“We’ll discuss this in my office. Follow me.” the monster said, glancing around at the workers before turning around and walking towards the big doors at the end of the room. “Everybody get back to work! Adult’s aren’t any more poisonous than children!”

The other monsters still seemed sceptical about this, and Lea made a couple of sudden movements in their general direction, grinning wildly at their frightened gasps. Riku frowned at him as they followed the boss monster through the doors.

“You’re making it worse. Stop it.”

“Killjoy.” Lea sulked.

The blue monster led them through a couple of corridors before pausing in front of a door with a sign saying “James Sullivan, CEO”. He was just about to reach for the door handle when he hesitated. Through the door they could hear a woman saying “Oh, googly bear” and the unmistakable noise of people making out.

“Sounds like your office is occupied.” Lea grinned. The monster frowned at the door.

“Mike!” he shouted at it. “What have I told you about using my office for making out with your girlfriend!”

There was a rustling sound from inside, then the door opened slightly, revealing a small, green monster that was basically an eyeball and a mouth.

“Come on, Sully. Just this once.” the eyeball said. Sullivan looked irritated.

“That’s what you say every time.” he muttered. “Anyway, I have...”

“ADULTS!” the eyeball suddenly screamed, as he laid eye on Riku and Lea. Sullivan nodded tiredly.

“Adults, yes. Looking for a door. Get out of my office, Mike.”

“Googly bear, what’s wrong?” said the female voice, then she appeared in the doorway behind him, gasping at the sight of the humans. She was pink, with purple snakes for hair. Riku thought she would have fitted well in Halloween town.

Lea leaned over to him while Sullivan talked to the two lovers. “How do you think those those two make out?” he asked. Riku just shook his head, trying very hard not to picture it, and failed. He felt a bit sick.

The green monster, Mike, stayed around while they finally entered the office, but his girlfriend left. 

“So,” Sullivan said, straightening the rather ridiculous tie he wore. “What’s this about a door?”

“I’m looking for a door into the realm of darkness.” Riku said. “I need to help someone who’s trapped in there.”

The monsters exchanged a confused look.

“The realm of darkness.” Mike said. “Doesn’t ring a bell. Why would there be children in the darkness?”

“Hold on.” Sullivan said, hesitatingly looking at the thick folders behind him. “It’s not impossible. we have quite a lot of doors here. Most doors are shredded when they lose their purpose, but not all. You’re welcome to look through our records, if you want.”

“Great.” Lea muttered. “Paperwork.”

The archives, it turned out, was a small library filled with one part folders and two parts dust. Riku suspected part of the dust actually came from the librarian, who seemed to be made of the stuff. They asked her about the door.

“I do not remember having archived such a thing.” she said. “And I remember everything I’ve archived...”

“Well, it was a good try.” Lea said happily. “Let’s go.”

“...but there might be one from before I started working here. Those records are in the back, the furthest you can go, and then to the left. You’re not allowed to bring any records outside, nor bring any food or drink inside. Are we clear?”

“Yes, thank you.” Riku said, then turned to Lea. “Come on.”

An hour later both of them were covered in a thin layer of dust, and they hadn’t even gone through half of the records the librarian had pointed out. 

“Can I please set fire to this place?” Lea said. “Please?”

“Stop whining.” Riku said, though he wasn’t as opposed to the idea of fire as he tried to act. “This is the best lead we’ve got.”

Lea snorted, then sneezed because of the dust.

“This is no lead. This is a hunch, and years of lung problems in the future.” he said. “Face it, there’s nothing here.”

“We don’t know that yet.” Riku said. “I thought you said you wanted to help.”

“This isn’t exactly what I had in mind.” he said. “I wanted to be a keyblade master, not a dustball.”

“Being a keyblade master isn’t all about glory and smashing things.” Riku said, growing irritated. 

“I just think there are better ways of helping people, that’s all.” Lea muttered, throwing another file at the floor.

“Like leaving master Aqua to the darkness and losing the battle against Xehanort?” Riku asked sarcastically. 

“We’re wasting our time. Besides, there are other keyblade wielders we could try to bring back.”

“Such as?”

“Such as Roxas, for example!” Lea said, sounding frustrated. “He had two of the damn things, he’d be twice the help!”

“It’s not possible, and you know it.” Riku said sternly. “Roxas is a part of Sora now. Both can’t exist at the same time.”

“Right, because Sora is so special” Lea said, throwing the files on the floor more rapidly now. “To you, at least.”

Riku slammed shut the file about a vaguely familiar looking door engraved with gargoyles.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, come off it. You like him.” Lea snorted. “And don’t give me that ‘we’re just friends’-crap. I’m not blind.”

“Look.” Riku said, trying to be patient but failing miserably. “I know you liked Roxas, but...”

“You don’t know anything.” Lea almost shouted. “You don’t know anything about Roxas. Or me. You’re blind to everything except Sora. And he’s _never going to notice!_ ”

“At least Sora’s actually a real person.” Riku snapped. 

“FUCK YOU!” Lea yelled angrily, bangnig his fist into the shelf before turning and storming off. The shelf wobbled for a bit, then fell to the floor with a bang. Lea didn’t even turn around. The door slammed shut behind him.

Riku stared at the mess on the floor a moment as the anger passed away. Lea may have been an asshole, but that was an incredibly insensitive thing to say. He would have to apologise later. Maybe. If Lea did as well.

Riku sighed as he started to raise the shelf up again. With all the files fallen out, it wasn’t too heavy. Or not quite all the files. There was one file left, stuck between two pieces of wood at the back of the shelf. It was so old the pages had gone past yellowing and made their way towards brown. It was also slightly crumpled.

As soon as Riku was sure the shelf wouldn’t fall down again, he reached for the file and opened it. Riku’s heart started beating faster. There was no text in the folder, no photo of a child, no cardkey, just a single picture of a door. A completely black door. It had a number written in the corner: 001.

Riku ignored the librarian’s outraged cries as he ran out to find Sullivan, folder in hand.

Getting the door took quite a while, as it wasn’t connected to the system anymore. They found it on the bottom of a ten feet high pile of old doors in the far end of the rather enormous storage space. Lea, whom it had also taken a while to find, hadn’t said a word during the entire process. Riku was too excited about the door to care.

“Are you sure you want to go in there? It looks dangerous.” Sullivan said, sounding a bit worried.

“I’ll be fine. Just make sure you don’t turn the power down before I’m back”. Riku said, giving the monster a smile before turning towards Lea. “Send word to Yen Sid about this. And you should...”

“You know what, I don’t care about your orders.” Lea interrupted him. “I hope you get stuck in there.”

Riku paused for a moment, opening his mouth to start arguing, then realised there was no point. He turned towards the door again.

“Been there, done that.” he said, resolutely opening the door and walking into the darkness.

 

Lea stared angrily at the closed door. Part of him wanted to follow Riku and beat him up, another wanted to cut the power and smash the door to pieces, leaving Riku stuck on the other side. In the end he settled for staring a little more.

“Umm...” the green little monster said uncertainly behind him. “Not that it’s any of my business, but what are you going to do now? Wait for him to come back?”

“Yeah, right.” Lea snorted. “I’m going back to the ship. Mister ‘I’m-such-a-cool-keyblade-master-and-better-than-you’ wouldn’t even let me fly it. He can find his own way home when he returns. If he returns.”

“I don’t know, man.” Mike said. “You shouldn’t have let your pal go away mad.”

“He’s not my pal.” Lea said, then looked around. “Now where’s that door back to Llama Land?”

It was early evening when Lea walked out of the closet. Pacha and his family were surprised to see him, but invited him for dinner again anyway. Lea declined. As good as the food smelled, he wanted to be alone.

Walking back to the ship took a while, but Lea appreciated the couple of heartless he met on the way for giving him the chance to hit something. There weren’t enough heartless left to truly cheer him up, though. After finally reaching the ship, his first impulse was to fly somewhere new, somewhere swarming with monsters. And not the friendly kind, either.

Instead, after flying around for a while, he realised he was headed somewhere completely different.

Radiant Garden wasn’t as radiant as he remembered from his childhood, though the citizens were making a good effort to restore it. Last time Lea was here, waking up after years as a nobody, he hadn’t really taken time to look around. Now he was strolling aimlessly down the streets, discovering his childhood home anew. It didn’t really feel like home anymore.

The marketplace was full of people, some of which Lea recognised but none he wanted to talk to. The ducks sold ice cream in the corner, and Lea hesitated before buying a Spark Lemon. Sea-salt felt wrong, somehow.

Quietly munching on the ice cream Lea made his way towards the fountain court, before remembering it wasn’t there anymore. Swearing under his breath, he sat down by the town square instead.

He remembered fighting Roxas there, once. He had lost, quite miserably, which was odd because that was before Roxas got his second keyblade, before... it was before...

Before he even _met_ Roxas. 

That’s weird. Maybe he’d gotten his memories mixed up somehow, when he became human again. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking.

Lea sighed as he absentmindedly licked the melted ice cream off his fingers. Maybe it was time he went back to Yen Sid’s tower after all.

 

Riku wasn’t sure how long he’d been walking around in there. There was no reliable way to measure the flow of time in the realm of darkness, but he knew he’d been there long enough. He was already missing the light so much it hurt, but master Aqua was nowhere to be found. What Riku _had_ found was a billion heartless, and Riku wished he’d had a companion to share the load with. Sora preferably. Or Mickey. Even Lea would have sufficed.

At long last he came up at the Dark Margin. The water was still as always, and Riku sank down in the sand to rest for a bit. He remembered looking out over this same sea from the other side, with Sora after defeating Xemnas some time ago. Riku wondered if Sora had returned to master Yen Sid’s tower yet.

The sound of footsteps behind him made him summon his keyblade. He turned around slowly, not getting up quite yet. In the shadows behind him he could vaguely make out the shape of a person. A _female_ person.

“Master Aqua?” he asked, finally getting to his feet. The figure in front of him was visibly startled.

“How... how did you know my name?” she asked, her voice strained, like she hadn’t been using it for a while. She took a couple of careful steps forward, and Riku could finally see her face. There was something very familiar about her.

“Master Yen Sid sent me. We’re getting out of here.” Riku said, still trying to remember where he’d seen her before. She looked at him, wide eyed.

“But there’s no door.” she said. “I’ve looked everywhere.”

“I’ve got one, though it’s a bit of a walk to get there.” Riku said. “We better get going.”

She seemed a bit overwhelmed, which Riku supposed was understandable after spending over ten years wandering the darkness, alone. Riku was actually surprised that she still seemed sensible at all.

_Wait, ten years..._

“I remember you!” he said suddenly. “You came to the island once, when I was little.”

“The island?” she repeated, looking confused. “Sorry, I don’t...”

“‘One keyblade is enough for any friendship’, you said.” Riku remembered, smiling bitterly. “More like to _break_ any friendship. Thanks for that.”

“You’re... you’re that kid?” she asked, startled. “But you’re... How long have I been here?”

“Ten years, give or take.” Riku said. “a lot of things has happened since then.”

“And you and your... friend? Sora, was it?” she asked, looking worried. “What happened?  
Riku laughed.

“Of course you remember Sora.” he mused. “Things turned ugly for a bit, my fault, but we’re still friends.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” she said, smiling sadly to herself.

They walked quietly for a while, but Riku felt happier now, having found master Aqua at last. She looked exactly as she had when he’d last seen her, ten years ago. Riku supposed people didn’t age normally in the realm of darkness. 

“The door should be just around...Shit!” 

The door was still there, still active, but it was barely visible behind all the heartless swarming around it. Riku summoned his keyblade again, and Aqua did the same behind him.

“I hope somebody is guarding the door on the other side.” she said. Riku shook his head.

“I don’t know. We had a fight.”

Aqua gave him a disappointed look, but Riku had no time to defend himself, as the heartless surrounding the door suddenly realised their presence. Riku was dismayed to realise there was a Darkside among them. He feared it would be a long battle, but Aqua was more capable than he expected, and every single one of her spells hit the mark. At times Riku almost felt like a beginner beside her.

Soon they made their way to the door, unhindered. There were still heartless around, but they seemed to realise they were outmatched and left the keyblade wielders alone. Aqua looked at the door hesitatingly.

“Where does this lead?” she asked, like she wasn’t sure the whole thing wasn’t just a hoax. Riku feared his answer would do nothing to reassure her, but he answered anyway.

“To a world where the friendly monsters from children’s closets live.” he said, and she stared at him for a long moment.

“Come on.” he finally said. “Let’s go.”

She hesitated for another moment, then followed Riku through the door.


	4. What's left of me

The factory hall felt incredibly bright after spending so long in the darkness. Riku eyes stung, but Aqua was covering hers with her hands, apparently unable to look around in the bright world.

“Oh, you’re finally back!” came a voice from behind them. Sullivan was standing around with his clipboard, apparently talking to another monster before he was interrupted by their arrival. “A good thing too, that door gave everyone the creeps. And the people coming through...” He shook his head.

“People?” Riku repeated. “What people?”

“You know, the small-ish black fellows.” Sullivan said. “No manners at all. I think they moved in downtown.”

Riku stared at the monster for a moment, then laughed.

“Only in this world.” he said. Sullivan gave him a confused look, then turned towards Aqua, who was blinking owlishly towards the light.

“So this is the girl. Lovely hair-color. “ he said, then gave Riku an apologetic look. “Your friend ran off, I’m afraid. He seemed pretty angry. He said he’d take the ship.”

“Of course he did.” Riku said tiredly. “You wouldn’t happen to have a door to Yen Sid’s tower, would you? Or Twilight Town at least.”

“We have a couple in Twilight Town, but I don’t know about this tower.” Sullivan said. “If you want to go through the records...”

“Twilight Town is fine.”

Some time later they walked through a closet in Twilight Town. The child on the bed jumped at their sudden appearance, and dragged down his hat to protect himself.

“Don’t worry, Vivi.” Riku said. “We’re just passing through.”

“This world is easier to look at.” Aqua said as they came out on the street. “The other one was too bright.”

“It’ll get better.” Riku assured her. “We just need to take the train to the tower, then we can rest.”

Riku luckily still had enough munny for the train, and it arrived quickly enough. He sighed of relief as he sat down. Aqua still looked dazed as she took the seat opposite him.

“I still sort of expect this to be a dream.” she said. “Except there are no dreams back there, only darkness.”

“I remember.” Riku said quietly. “I was stuck over there for a short while myself.”

“Strange that we never ran into each other.” she said. “But the realm of darkness is pretty large.”

They were quiet again for a while.

“Who was the friend that was supposed to wait for you?” Aqua asked. “It wasn’t Sora, was it?”

“No, there wouldn’t have been a problem if it had been.” Riku said. “It was Lea, my kind-of student. We don’t really get along.”

“Why not?”

Riku opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment the train stopped. They were finally there.  
They got off the train and started walking towards the tower.

“Riku!” came a happy yell from the grounds, and Riku was smiling even before he turned around and suddenly found himself almost tackled to the ground by the unexpected hug. He would have known that voice anywhere.

“Hi, Sora.” he said, returning the hug. “When did you get back?”

“About a day after you left.” Sora grinned. “You should have waited for me.”

“I didn’t know when you’d be back.” Rku said, a bit disappointed when Sora took a step back. “Anyway, do you remember master Aqua?”

“Remember...?” Sora begun, then turned to look at the woman standing behind Riku. He smiled broadly. “Yes, I remember her. Hi! I’m Sora. Nice to meet you again.”

Aqua seemed a bit taken aback by Soras friendliness, but she shook his hand anyway. Sora prattled happily on, but Riku was surprised to see his ears turning slightly pink when he touched her hand. Riku frowned. What was that all about?

Sora followed them all the way upstairs to Yen Sid’s office, talking about this and that. Kairi’s training was going well, apparently. She was currently off on a small assignment in Twilight Town, but would be back before the night. Lea had returned yesterday, and gotten an earful from Yen Sid for not staying to guard the door. He had been sulking in his room ever since. Mickey had also stopped by, briefly, but he had no real news. Nonetheless, Riku was sorry to have missed him.

Yen Sid looked more pleased than Riku had ever seen him when they entered his room. “Master Aqua, it’s been far too long”, he said before asking her to sit down. Riku stood on the side, not sure if he was needed or not, until Yen Sid thanked him and dismissed him. He’d be called on later, he’d said. 

It was a relief, really. He was starving and quite tired, but most of all he wanted to see more of Sora. A combination of Sora and food would be the best. 

Sora was waiting outside the door and continued his explanations from right where he’d stopped when he and Aqua had entered Yen Sid’s room. Or maybe he had never stopped, Riku wasn’t sure. But the sound of him going on about his Spirits and what he’d seen in his normal excited ways made Riku’s heart feel lighter. Sora made anything better.

Except for hunger, which was proven when his stomach grumbled loudly halfway down the stairs. Sora’s laughter must have been heard through the whole tower. Maybe Riku blushed a bit, but mostly he just laughed with Sora. 

Some time after dinner Kairi came back, giving Riku a hug and showing off some of the new spells Yen Sid had taught her. Riku wasn’t exactly sure what good a giant butterfly would do in battle, but Sora seemed to enjoy it, so he held his tongue. Soon afterwards they were all called up to Yen Sid’s tower again. 

Lea was already there, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, seemingly bored. He looked up as they entered and briefly met Riku’s eyes before looking away again. He didn’t seem that mad anymore, at least, but Riku was slightly irritated by the easy dismissal.

“Now that you’re all here.” Yen Sid begun, standing up behind his desk. “we have a serious matter to discuss, and must choose what is to be done. Master Aqua had some information on another keyblade wielder we have been looking for. He is sealed away in what was once the Land of Departure. Retrieving him could prove dangerous, but he would undoubtedly be an asset to our cause. ”

“So let’s go get him!” Sora said, eager as always. Riku was more hesitant.

“Why is it dangerous?” he asked. Lea made a sound like the mere question made Riku a coward, but Riku ignored him.

“Because the Land of Departure is now known by another name. Surely you remember Castle Oblivion?”

“What?” Riku and Lea exclaimed in unison, while Sora just scratched his head, looking confused.

“I feel like I should know that place, but I don’t.” he said. “But it shouldn’t be so bad, right? We need to help this guy.”

Master Aqua gave Sora a quick, thankful smile from across the room.

“Only I can open the door to the room Ven is sealed in.” she said. “And I will go and get him back regardless, but I’ll be thankful for any help I get.”

“You can count on us.” Sora said, grinning as he swung an arm around Riku’s shoulder. “Right, Riku?”

As if he’d ever be able to turn that face down. Riku nodded, smiling even though the thought of returning Castle Oblivion didn’t excite him in the slightest.

“Sure.” he said.

“I’m coming, too.” came an unexpected voice from the other side of the room. Everybody turned towards Lea in surprise as he disconnected himself from the wall and shrugged. “After all the trouble the Xemnas had me go through trying to find that sealed room of yours for him, I’ll be damned if I let this opportunity to finally see it pass me by. I’m going.”

“Great!” Sora smiled brightly, but he was the only one in the room pleasantly surprised by the news. Even Aqua looked unsure.

“As you will.” Yen Sid finally said. “You’ll leave tomorrow morning. Take the opportunity to rest this evening.”

“I guess I’ll be the only one left back here.” Kairi said wistfully as they made their way down the stairs. “Again.”

“We won’t be gone long.” Riku assured her. “Besides, you really wouldn’t want to go to that place. Not before you’re fully trained, anyway.”

“Lea isn’t fully trained, but he’s going anyway.” Kairi pointed out. “But I guess he’s got more experience in battle than me. I’ll miss you guys though.”

“We’ll miss you, too.” Sora said, putting one arm around her and the other around Riku. “Hey, let’s go do something in Twilight Town, just the three of us. Like old times.”

Riku was rather tired after his journey, but he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It hadn’t been just the three of them since Destiny Islands, after defeating Xemnas, and then only for a short time. Spending some time with his best friends sounded wonderful.

They didn’t return until after midnight. Sora and Kairi both fell asleep on the way back, but Riku, being overly tired, had no problem staying awake. In fact he found it hard to fall asleep even after finally going to bed. After a while he gave up and went to the kitchen to drink some water.

He was surprised to find Lea sitting alone at the kitchen table, staring intently at a stick he was twirling between his fingers. He looked sad, somehow.

“You should go to sleep.” Riku said, startling Lea, who quickly put the stick back into his coat.

“Are you my mother now?” Lea asked irritatedly, and Riku rolled his eyes as he walked over to the sink to pour himself some water.

“If I was I’d ground you.” he said. “But we both should really try to get some sleep, unless we want to let Sora do all the fighting tomorrow.”

“Point taken.” Lea sighed, and left the room without another word. Riku shrugged and finished his water, then went back to bed himself. Sleep came more easily now.

“This place looks familiar.” Sora said as they walked up to the castle. “But I’ve never been here.”

“Yes, you have.” Lea said. “And so have I. For way too long. I hate this place.”

“You were the one who wanted to come.” Riku reminded him. 

“I know. But I still hate this place.”

“You would have liked it the way it was before.” Aqua said wistfully. “Perhaps, after all this is over, I can restore it to that shape.”

“And then we’ll come and visit!” Sora said happily. Aqua gave him a short smile, then led the way through the door. 

“The castle was designed so that only I could find the Chamber of Waking.” Aqua said (“Yeah, thanks for that” Lea muttered). “So please follow me closely.”

She led them through another door, where they were attacked by a swarm of Nobodies. Mostly Dusks, but there were one or two annoying Berserkers as well. Aqua was the only one who hadn’t encountered them before, though you wouldn’t have guessed it by the way she hit them with her spells, no hesitation at all. Sora was impressed. Lea too, probably, but he hid it better.

“What are those traps you set?” Sora asked, his face full of admiration. “I’ve never seen that before.”

“The _Seeker Mine_ -spell?” Aqua asked. “It’s just an advanced mine shield.”

“You think you could teach me?” Sora asked. Lea snorted somewhere in the background.

“Maybe, when we get back.” Aqua said hesitantly. “It’s not really difficult, but you need quite a lot of magic power to control it.”

Sora grinned happily. Riku shook his head, not really sure what had just happened. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

They pressed on nonetheless. Some of the rooms they passed looked familiar. Riku frowned as they passed the room where he faced his replica the first time. It was not a pleasant memory. He almost envied Sora for not remembering the place at all.

A while later Lea stopped.

“Hey, I know this place.” he said. “I killed Vexen in here.”

“You did that?” Riku asked. “Good, I didn’t like him.”

Sora and Aqua looked confused, but Lea snickered.

“Yeah, he was a creep. Even is pretty ok, though. Doesn’t hold it against me.” he said.

Aqua led them deeper into the castle. A few times they had to stop to dispose of Nobodies, but the battles were quick. They worked well as a team, even though Sora was the only one used to actual teamwork in battle. It showed too. At times he would leave his back completely open, trusting his companions to cover him. Riku made sure he was alway nearby to do that.

They walked through a number of rooms looking completely identical, before Aqua finally stopped in front of a plain, white wall.

“Are we lost?” Sora asked, but Aqua shook her head.

“No, this is it.” she said, lifting her keyblade towards the wall. Riku blinked, and realised the plain wall was actually large door, richly decorated and looking nothing like a wall at all. Lea gave a slow whistle behind him as Aqua opened the lock and pushed the door open.

The room inside was circular and colored a purple-ish white, with symbols etched on the walls. In the middle of the room was a large throne, and on the throne sat...

“...Roxas?” Lea choked behind him, sounding like he didn’t believe his eyes. Riku was feeling something similar. The boy on the throne _was_ Roxas… wasn’t it?

“Ven!” Aqua exclaimed, rushing to the boy’s side and kneeling beside him, her hand on his shoulder. Riku forgot everything about their fight and was just about to go and put a hand on Lea’s shoulder, to somehow show that this was as confusing to him, when Sora walked up to the throne, as if in a trance.

He just stood there, leaning his head backwards and closing his eyes. Within seconds there was a light leaving his body. It flew straight to the boy on the throne, slowly but surely, and as the boy slowly opened his eyes Sora fell to his knees. Riku was by his side right away. 

“Aq..ua...?” the boy whispered, like his voice wasn’t really working. She beamed at him with tears in her eyes.

“Oh, Ven.” she said, bringing him into a hug, which he slowly returned. Riku looked away, feeling like he was intruding on a private moment, and looked down at Sora instead, who was already recovering from letting go of the boy’s heart. He was watching the reunion with a big happy smile on his face, but Lea...

Riku couldn’t quite pinpoint what Lea looked like at that moment. There was a mixture of confusion, hurt and wonder on his face, but mostly he looked like he’d been struck by lighting. He stared at the scene in front of him without blinking. Riku turned his eyes away, unsure what to do. The boy in front of them confused him as well.

Despite having woken, the boy Aqua presented to them as “Ventus” wasn’t exactly all there. He couldn’t walk, so they had to carry him out. Riku volunteered for the task, fearing that Lea might break if someone asked him to do it. The way back was quiet, they hardly saw any nobodies at all this time, which was lucky. They didn’t exactly have the mentality to fight right now. Aqua was still overwhelmed by happiness. She was telling stories about Ventus from their time in the Land of departure. Sora was giving her his full attention, but Riku barely listened. He kept glancing behind them, at Lea, who walked like he was asleep, his eyes fixed on the boy on Riku’s back. Riku was slightly worried that he might walk into a wall.

Lea disappeared the moment they set foot on the tower grounds again. Riku carried Ventus to an empty bedchamber, and Aqua stayed there with him. Sora ran off to go find Kairi, so reporting to master Yen Sid ended up being Riku’s obligation. Riku sighed as he made his way up the stairs. It had been a long, confusing day, and he would rather have gone to sleep.

Thankfully, Yen Sid let him tell the story without interruption or questions. When Riku was finished, the old wizard was quiet for a moment, absentmindedly stroking his beard.

“Hmm.” he said. “So the boy still needs time to recover? That is unfortunate, but only to be expected after all these years, I suppose. Very well, tomorrow we must decide what to do next. You can go now, master Riku, I’m sure you’re tired.”

“Thank you.” Riku said, turning around to leave but stopping just before the door. “Master Yen Sid, why do Ventus and Roxas look the same?”

“Oh, do they?” Yen Sid said. “That does make a certain kind of sense. I shall explain in front of everyone tomorrow.”

Riku left the study, feeling much more tired now than when he arrived. The old master had that effect on people, he supposed. Still, they would get answers tomorrow. Riku stumbled into his room and was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

 

“It seems we all have some questions that need answers.” Yen Sid started, as they had all gathered in his study again the following day. Riku was standing on the side, so that he had perfect view of both Sora right next to Yen Sid’s desk and Lea, who was leaning against the wall closer to the door. Lea hadn’t said a word to anyone since the chamber had opened and he was again staring straight at the floor.

Somehow it made Riku worried.

Yen Sid hummed before finally continuing. “It seems that twelve years ago, when Ven’s heart was lost, his heart called for help. And there was someone who opened their heart to his, keeping it safe for all these years.”

Riku understood right before Yen Sid said it.

“Sora. Something happened to you inside that chamber. When Ventus’s heart left yours and returned to it’s real owner.”

Everyone’s eyes were on Sora.

“I--don’t really remember. I walked in and then I got a bit light headed. And felt a bit empty inside. So Ventus was really inside me?”

“That would be the case, yes.”

Riku decided he’d ask again. Lea would never ask, and to be honest he was very curious himself. Maybe Lea deserved an explanation. And maybe Riku getting it for him could be his apology.

“Does that make Roxas Ventus’s nobody?”

“I’m afraid not. It would however seem that when Sora turned into a heartless not only his own heart left his body. I believe that this Roxas always had a heart. Ventus’s heart. But he was still Sora’s nobody.”

“Is...“ Riku looked at Lea in surprise when he started speaking. “Is Ventus aware of being Roxas?”

“Not any more so than Sora is, I assume.” Yen Sid answered, stroking his beard.

“I see.”

And then all Riku saw was Lea’s back disappearing out through the door without another word. “Lea--”, he tried, but the door had already slammed shut behind him. Sighing he noticed everyone was looking at him. Aqua looked the most confused of them all, and it was understandable. The silence dragged on until Riku broke it.

“He... It’s Roxas. I’ll go find Lea later, let’s continue.”

“I think you should follow him.” Sora said suddenly. “It must hurt a lot.”

“What--”

“He said Roxas made him feel like he had a heart back before he faded. He’s got one now.”

Most of the time Sora was the most oblivious human being in the whole universe, and then there were times when he simply understood how people felt so easily. How Riku wished that would one day work on him and Sora would see the truth. But this time it seemed Lea, or Axel, had made Sora understand.

Riku nodded and looked at Yen Sid, silently asking for permission to leave. They could manage without him, and really, he’d just check that Lea wasn’t punching any holes into the walls or burning anything. 

“You may continue with the work of protecting the re-awakened worlds. Dismissed.”

He nodded in understanding and smiled at Sora before leaving, pretending not to notice that Sora’s eyes were already locked on Aqua.

Lea wasn’t in his room, nor in the kitchen. Riku searched the tower grounds for a while, but he was nowhere to be found. Which meant he’d left the tower. Riku hoped he hadn’t gone too far. If he wasn’t in Twilight Town Riku really didn’t know what to do.

He walked the streets of the town for a while, with no success. He was about to give up when he saw Pence and Olette walking down the street, laughing at some private joke. It reminded Riku of Roxas, and the time he and Diz spent monitoring him in the Other Twilight Town.

Suddenly he had a pretty good idea of where Lea was.


	5. A question to the world

_Roxas is gone._

Some part of Lea had known it all along, but he had fought hard to deny it. Having it spelled out for him like that hurt, but it wasn’t nearly the worst part. Having to be around, and possibly fight beside, a guy that looked like Roxas but wasn’t him... he couldn’t handle that. He’d rather run away, all the worlds be dammed.

Lea was staring at the ice cream-stick in front of him, remembering all the times he and Roxas had been up there, on the clocktower, looking at the sunset and stuffing their faces with sea-salt ice cream. Life had been good then. Now all he was left with was memories and a wooden stick.

Lea wasn’t sure how long he sat there before he heard footsteps behind him. He didn’t turn around.

“What do you want?” he said angrily, not knowing who it was, but not caring either. He wanted to be alone.

There was a slight pause behind him, before the person started moving again. Not away, as Lea hoped, or at least thought he hoped, but towards him. Lea looked up just in time to see Riku sitting down beside him.

“Master Yen Sid said we should go out to check on the new worlds again.” Riku said, and when Lea didn’t answer he continued: ”Meaning you don’t have to go back there. Not for awhile, at least.”

Lea stared at him for a moment. Riku wasn’t looking at him, but the tone of his voice was soft. Lea wasn’t sure how to handle sympathy.

“Trying to get rid of me, are they?” Lea said, meaning to sound irritated but not quite having the energy. Riku gave him a small smile.

“They’re trying to get rid of me too, in that case.” he said, a hint of amusement in his voice. “I’ll be going with you.”

“I don’t need you to teach me anything anymore.” Lea said bitterly, but Riku shook his head.

“When have I ever truly taught you anything?” he said. “I’ll just be there to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

“I don’t need a babysitter.” Lea said. “I’m older than you, in any case.”

“Really? I never would have known.” Riku said sarcastically. “Anyway, whether you want to go or not is entirely up to you.”

Lea was quiet for a while, thinking it over. Part of him just wanted to tell Riku to go away and stay on top of the clock tower forever, drowning himself in memories. Or possibly jump off the tower, but that thought didn’t seem nearly as attractive since Riku turned up. Lea sighed deeply.

“Fine.” he said. “I’ll go. On the condition that the first place we try to find has a bar.”

 

 _This is a bad idea_ , Riku thought as they lowered the gummi ship down outside a small inn on one of the newly awakened worlds. Lea was hard enough to handle normally, and getting him drunk probably wouldn’t improve the situation much.

There were a couple of other ships parked outside the _Admiral Benbow Inn_ , but most of them were grey or brown and rather old fashioned. Some even seemed to be made out of wood. The gummi ship stood out like a sore thumb. The inn itself also looked old fashioned, though it was clearly built quite recently.

“Come on, let’s go!” Lea said eagerly, and Riku reluctantly followed him through the door.

The inn seemed like a comfortable, respectable place, the kind of place you would take your kids out to dinner in. There were a couple of shady customers in the corner, and the robot that showed them to their table had clearly lost a few screws, but all in all Riku was starting to feel more relaxed. It was unlikely Lea would be able to get into much trouble here, even if he did manage to get drunk. The robot even gave Riku a suspicious look as Lea ordered drinks for them.

“Excuse me, sir, but how old are you?” the robot asked, his head getting closer to Riku with every word until he almost touched Riku’s nose. Riku drew back as much as he could without falling of the chair, slightly freaked out. 

“He’s old enough, metal head.” Lea said, laughing. “Can’t you see his hair is white?”

“Hmm.” the robot said, tugging at Riku’s hair as if making sure it wasn’t a wig. “Well, I must say you look good for your age. I’ll bring your drinks. Would you like something to eat as well?”

Lea snickered as the robot disappeared into the kitchen.

“‘You look good for your age.’” he repeated. “I guess that’s true, but not the way he meant it.”

“Shut up.” Riku said. “Going drinking was your idea.”

“And I’m not planning on getting drunk alone. You better try to keep up.” Lea said, more or less grabbing the bottle from the robot’s hand as he returned. Riku was more patient, and waited until the robot had filled his glass before taking a sip of his own. He made a face at the bitter taste, but tried to hide it. Luckily Lea had his eyes closed, apparently attempting to down the bottle in one take.

“I hope you’ll be keeping an eye on your friend over there.” the robot said in a theatrical whisper, leaning over Riku. “He seems to be the type to go completely bananas, if you know what I mean.”

“Don’t worry, I can handle him.” Riku said, waving dismissively towards the robot. “Though I think we’re going to need a room if he keeps going like this. Our ship doesn’t really have space to sleep in.”

“That can be arranged. One bed or two?”

Lea started laughing on the other side of the table, looking like he was about to say something..

“Two.” Riku answered hastily. “Definitely two.”

The robot nodded knowingly, then left. Riku sighed as he turned back towards his companion, who was already opening a second bottle.

“That really hurt my feelings you know.” Lea pouted.

“Are you seriously drunk already? You’ve had _one_ bottle.” Riku said disbelievingly, glancing at his glass. “What is this stuff anyway?”

“Think of it as Potion for the mind.” Lea said, taking another gulp. “And this here is High Potion stuff, at least. Bottom’s up, Riku. You’re falling behind.”

Riku took another sip of his drink, mostly for Lea’s benefit. He was perfectly fine with falling behind. In fact, Riku wasn’t sure he’d have been able to keep up even if he hadn’t been trying to stay sober enough to keep Lea out of trouble. And trouble was coming, Riku was sure of it. The knot of worry in his stomach got tighter with every bottle Lea ordered. He seemed happy, but aggressively so. Desperate, somehow.

When Lea attempted to start singing to the whole inn, Riku decided it was time to call it a night and head upstairs.

“Your eyes are strange.” Lea said thickly as Riku helped him up the stairs. Lea seemed to have lost his sense of balance, as well as any comprehension of personal space he might have had before. Riku could feel his breath against his ear as he spoke.

“Seriously, what’s with your eyes? Are they blue or green?” Lea said, leaning his full weight against Riku as he attempted to open the door to their room. “You have to choose one. You can’t have both. That’s not fair.”

Riku finally got the door open and more or less carried Lea inside and tried to shake him off on one the beds, but a drunk Lea was apparently a clingy one.

“Or maybe it would be fair. To have both. Combined. All should be able to exist at the same time, don’t you think? But they can’t! And that’s what’s not fair.”

Suddenly Lea’s grin was gone, and his eyes teared up.

“It’s just not fair!” he yelled. Then, suddenly, he started to cry. Riku stared at him, not sure what to do. Part of him was just thankful they had made it to the privacy of their room before this happened. 

Riku awkwardly put a hand on Lea’s shoulder, briefly considering saying something but deciding against it. After all, there wasn’t a single thing he could say or do to make things better. So he just sat there quietly while Lea cried and then slowly drifted off to a drunken sleep. After making sure Lea lay on his side so he wouldn’t choke if he started to puke, Riku silently got up and exited the room. Riku was tired, but at the same time full of energy that he needed to get rid of somehow. He figured he’d go out and see if he could find some heartless in need of smashing.

The owner of the inn, a woman Riku’s mother’s age but still quite beautiful, stopped him before reaching the door.

“Is your friend ok?” she asked worriedly. “He seemed quite...well...”

“Unruly? Sorry about that.” Riku said. “He just lost someone close to him, I guess this is his way to deal with it.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. You’re not leaving him here alone, are you?”

“No, but he’s asleep. I’m just going out for some fresh air.” Riku assured her.

“Just be careful out there. Sometimes there can be monsters.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Riku said, giving her a reassuring smile before heading out of the inn. The night was dark, but the stars and a crescent shape that wasn’t a moon provided some light at least. Riku still walked carefully not to fall over the edge of the cliff the inn was built on.

At first it seemed like it would be a calm night, but soon enough he found some heartless hiding among the rocks. That meant there was a keyhole that needed sealing in this world as well. Riku looked around for quite a while, before the weariness caught up with him and he headed back to the inn. The dining room was pretty dark and seemed empty when Riku came in. The only light came from the blazing fireplace. Riku almost missed the figure sitting in front of it, as his coat blended as well with the shadows as his hair did with the fire. Lea turned his head as Riku walked closer.

“Hey.” he said tiredly. “Where have you been?”

“Out. Smashing some heartless.” Riku answered, sitting down beside Lea on the floor. “I didn’t find the keyhole yet though.”

“I think it’s probably in here somewhere. There’s something about this place, you know.” Lea said, looking into the fire. “New beginnings, that kind of thing.”

“We can look for it in the morning.” Riku said. “Do you want to seal it?”

“Sure, why not?” Lea said with a small smile on his lips. He seemed to have sobered up, in more ways than one. Riku suddenly realised he was holding the popsicle stick again. Lea noticed him looking.

“This?” he said, holding the stick up for Riku to see. “It’s a memory of Roxas. Something I have held onto for a long time now. For when I’d see him again.”

His gaze turned back towards the fire.

“But I won’t ever see him again, will I? No matter how hard I hold on.” Lea paused, looking back at the stick, then around at the inn in general. “‘New beginnings’, huh? Well, I guess this is as good a place as any.”

Slowly, determinedly, he threw the popsicle stick into the fire. Riku stared at him, shocked, as he calmly watched the stick burn. Lea smiled tiredly at Riku’ expression.

“I’ll always remember him, I don’t need the stick for that.” Lea said. “This is my way of letting him go.”

Riku nodded silently, watching the stick slowly burn to cinders in front of him. When there finally was no trace left of it at all Lea sighed and got on his feet. 

“It’s almost morning, but I think I’ll be heading back to sleep anyway. You coming?”

Rikus yawn was answer enough. They got back upstairs, and slept until after the breakfast-serving was over at the inn. The owner was sympathetic enough to get both of them pancakes when they came downstairs, anyway. Shortly after breakfast, or lunch as was more accurate, they found the keyhole on the bridge right outside the inn, not twenty meters from where the gummi ship was parked.

“How did we miss this yesterday?” Riku said, shaking his head. Lea laughed as he finished sealing the keyhole.

“I guess we weren’t looking for it.”

“We’ll have to try and be more observant on the next world.” Riku said. “Let’s get going.”

“Actually,” Lea smirked as he let his keyblade disappear. “the first thing we’ll be looking for in the new world is new clothes.”

“I don’t need new clothes.”

“Yes, you really do, but I was talking about me.” Lea said. “I still look like one of the Organization, and I’m not. Not anymore.”

“‘New beginnings.’” Riku said thoughtfully. “Are you going to change your hair as well?”

His only answer was a playful smack on the head and a "Can I drive this time?".

Something Riku now deeply regretted agreeing to. It felt right to let him do it, it didn't make sense not to. However, there was the small detail of Lea not being used to driving anything like a gummi ship. Especially not while hungover.

Which was why Riku was now standing and staring wordlessly at the pretty mangled wreck of a gummi ship before him. Luckily some trees had softened their crash, so both him and Lea were unhurt. Those words really couldn't be said about the gummi ship. This would take at least a day to repair, and that was _if_ this world had the supplies. Otherwise... Who knew.

"You just had to drive, didn't you?" He said, voice dripping with irritation.

"Hey, it wasn't me who forgot to mention the brakes don't work when in Z-mode!" came the annoyed reply from next to him.

"Because I know how to drive this thing, unlike you!" Riku nearly shouted, turning to glare at Lea. 

“Well, why the fuck did you let me drive then, Mr. Perfect?!” Lea’s voice rising to the same level as Riku’s, only causing Riku to get even more annoyed. Why did the shit not understand this was completely his fault and now they’d be stuck here? And he’d only been--

“I was trying to be nice to you for fucks sake, you pathetic--!”

“Well, don’t be then, clearly it’s not worth it”, Lea snapped and stalked off into the forest, leaving Riku alone with the mess that had been the gummi ship. Not having to deal with Lea for even a little while felt oddly relaxing, though it only took him seconds to start feeling bad about the shouting.

With a sigh he started inspecting the wreckage and what could be done about it.

 

If Lea was completely honest with himself the accident had been his fault. However, Riku’s back seat driving hadn’t exactly helped the situation, especially since he apparently left out the useful bits. Like that thing about the brakes. Lea hadn’t even noticed that when piloting the ship back from Llama Land. 

Scowling to himself Lea walked around aimlessly, taking in the landscape. The forest was thick with large trees, and there was a river flowing nearby. Lea walked down to it and bent down to wash his face, careful not to fall into the water. He was slowly starting to calm down. 

Once Lea’s head was clearer he decided to follow the river for a while and see if he could find some people. The forest seemed wild and untouched, so the place might be uninhabited, but if there were people they might be able to get help with the ship. Also Lea would have an excuse to go back to see Riku if he found something worth reporting on. Otherwise it would seem like he went back to apologise, and that wasn’t going to happen.

“Hello.”

Lea spun around, surprised. He hadn’t heard anything, yet a young woman was standing behind him. She was wearing a dress made of some kind of animal hide, but no shoes. She seemed perfectly calm, even smiling slightly at his surprise.

“Are you lost?” she asked. Lea shrugged.

“Not really. I mean, I have no idea where I am, but I’m not lost.” Lea said. She laughed a little at that.

“You have wandered pretty far from Jamestown.” she said. “But you can see it if you climb that hill over there.”

“Jamestown?” Lea asked. “Is that your city?”

Lea immediately knew he had said something wrong by the way she was staring at him.

“Sorry, I just arrived here from kind of far away, so I don’t really know anything.” Lea said quickly.

“So you are not one of the pioneers from Jamestown?” she asked. “Where are you from? Are you from London?”

“No, further away.” Lea answered vaguely. She seemed a bit disappointed.

“Then you wouldn’t know about John Smith?” she asked, and sighed as Lea shook his head. She looked sad, but smiled bravely towards Lea anyway. “My name is Pocahontas.”  
“My name is Lea. L-E-A. Got it memorised?” Lea answered automatically. “You think you could take me to that town you were talking about?”

She nodded, seemingly a bit confused by his presentation. She led Lea through the forest without hesitation, her feet hardly making a sound even though the ground was full of leaves and fallen branches. Lea had never realised how loud his own footsteps were.

When they arrived at Jamestown Lea let go of any hope he might have nurtured about finding supplies for the gummi ship. It was basically a small village, hardly deserving of the word town, and absolutely everything seemed made of wood, except for some occasional metal here and there. The town and the people in it were so old fashioned that Benbow inn seemed modern in comparison.

“You do not seem very happy.” Pocahontas remarked. Lea shook his head.

“I was hoping to find something to help repair our ship.” Lea confessed. “You wouldn’t happen to have any gummi laying around, would you?” 

“Gummi?” she repeated. “I don’t think so. Is it like gold? That’s what the other’s were looking for at first.”

Lea assured her that gummi and gold were two very different things. She seemed curious to know more, but some of the women from Jamestown were trying to get her attention, and they didn’t look happy, so she excused herself, saying she hoped to see him again. Lea looked around the village quickly, then sighed and turned back to go look for Riku. At least he could report not finding anything useful.

Without a guide it took Lea twice as long to find his way back to the ship than it took to walk to the town, but at least he did find it. Riku, however, was nowhere to be seen. It was pretty clear he had been working hard to repair the ship, and Lea felt a bit guilty for leaving him alone with all the work. Maybe the salted meat he’d bought in Jamestown would serve as an apology. Provided Riku came back soon, of course.

Lea had examined the repairs for a while when he heard steps behind him. Happy to know he wasn’t the only one walking loudly Lea turned around, and stared. Huh, that was a surprise.

“You’re back.” Riku said, but Lea could hardly hear him. Riku was stranding bare chested in front of him, his hair dripping wet, presumably from the river, and Lea couldn’t understand how such a slender body could have that many muscles. Lea didn’t look nearly as fit when he took of his shirt, and he couldn’t stop looking. The small drops of water that ran down Riku’s chest really didn’t help, either.

“Lea?” Riku asked, his voice slightly annoyed, and Lea shook his head. _Ok, get yourself together. Nothing wrong with admiring the view, but there’s a time and a place._

“Sorry, must have spaced out.” Lea said. “I found the most old fashioned village ever, and bought some meat. You hungry?”

“Starving.” Riku answered, smiling slightly. Lea was both sorry and relieved when he put on his vest again before sitting down to eat.

After the meal Lea told him about the village and what Pocahontas had said. Riku nodded grimly and updated Lea on the gummi ship situation. The damage wasn’t as bad as they had first thought, mostly it was a matter of putting the scattered pieces back together, but it would take time. The small cannon was completely destroyed though, so they would have to rely on agility to take them to the next world. Everything depend on whether or not they could repair the engine, which was currently not working at all.

“I’m not a mechanic.” Riku said. “But that engine is old and pretty simple, so I might be able to figure it out, but if the parts are missing or too badly damaged there’s only so much I can do.”

“Sorry I can’t help. I’ve never had a good hand with machines.”

“I noticed.” Riku said, and Lea was waiting for him to say more about it, to start fighting again, but he didn’t. “We will be stuck here for a few days at least.”

They worked together for a while. Lea was mostly holding or fetching things for Riku, but at least he was able to do something to help. He still felt a bit guilty about leaving Riku alone with the wreckage earlier, but Riku hadn’t said a word about it. In fact he hadn’t said much at all. Lea wasn’t sure if he was still angry, or just concentrated on getting the machine fixed. Lea was just about to ask when the raccoon arrived.

They didn’t notice it at first, as they were both on the other side of the gummi ship trying to get the wing straightened, but the sound of something falling to the ground got their attention. They were just in time to see a mess of fallen pieces where their carefully sorted assortment of loose gummi had been, and the raccoon running off with a piece of gummi in it’s mouth. 

“I’ll get him!” Lea yelled, already on it’s trail, but so was Riku.

“Let’s try to corner it!” he yelled back, running a bit to the said rather than straight behind the animal. The raccoon was fast, and more used to the terrain than they were. Riku tried using Stop on it a couple of times, but it was too quick. Before long they looked around and realised the animal had gotten away.

“Fuck.” Lea swore. “Do you think it was an important piece?”

“How should I know? Could be.” Riku said, then sighed. “Well, it can’t eat it, so with luck we might find it laying around somewhere later. Let’s head back.”

It was starting to get dark, and the setting sun colored the forest in pink hues as they reached the river. It was a strange light that almost made Lea think he could see the wind.

“Well, thievish animals aside, I suppose there are worse places to get stuck in.” Riku said, looking around with a small smile on his face. “It’s quite beautiful.”

Lea found himself staring again. The light behaved similarly in Riku’s hair as it did on the surface of the river, mixing hues of blue and pink that alternated with the movement of the wind. Riku noticed him looking, and looked back, eyebrows raised.

“Your hair is weird.” Lea said honestly, trying to convince mostly himself that he didn’t find it attractive. It was only yesterday he had finally let go of Roxas after all. A bit too early to start looking at the other fish in the sea already. Even if the fish had weird hair and firm muscles and what the hell was up with those eyes, anyway?

“You’re one to talk.” Riku said, apparently unaware of Lea’s inner debate. “Come on, we should head back and hide the other loose pieces before they get stolen, too.”

When they reached the ship Riku put the smaller pieces into the cockpit. There wasn’t room enough for the bigger ones, especially not since Lea and Riku still wanted to be able to move in there. They decided to sleep outside. There were blankets in the ships storage they could use, and it didn’t seem like it would start raining. Besides, sleeping in the ship would have been cramped, and Jamestown was too far away.

Lea lit a small fire a few meters away from the ship, careful not to let the fire spread to the surrounding foliage, and they ate the last of the salted meat Lea had bought. It was pretty dark by the time they had finished eating.

“Do you think we need to keep watch?” Lea asked. “Pocahontas didn’t say anything about any dangers.”

“I bet you forgot to ask her about it.” Riku said, laughing at Lea’s scowl. “There might be heartless around. This was one of the sleeping worlds, after all.”

Lea got stuck with the first watch. He wasn’t complaining really, he probably wouldn’t have been able to fall asleep yet anyway, but keeping watch was boring. His eyes kept wandering back to where Riku was sleeping, and he allowed himself to stare as the other wasn’t awake to reproach him for it. 

Lea had always known Riku was attractive, but he hadn’t really been _aware_ of it before. Sure, he had jokingly flirted with him sometimes, mostly because it was obvious Riku wasn’t used to that. Which, come to think of it, was pretty strange, but Lea guessed the kid hadn’t exactly had time for romance lately, if ever. And when he thought about it, Riku clearly liked Sora, who was one of the most oblivious people Lea had ever met. It was a bit sad, but it made sense.

His thoughts kept going around in circles for hours, slowly coming to the conclusion that he really was attracted to Riku, at least physically. He just hadn’t even been able to really consider the thought before. It still felt a bit weird.

Dawn came surprisingly quickly, and Lea realised that he’d never woken Riku up to switch places. He was tired, but not really sleepy. Most of all he had a need to do something useful.

Standing up from where he’d been sitting he stretched his arms into the air, shoulders and legs making small cracking noises from having been sitting in one place for hours. He then gently shook Riku, to wake him up.

“Yo Sleeping Beauty, it’s morning.”

Riku shifted and opened his eyes, blinking a few times. It was surprisingly cute. Then he sat up suddenly, looking at Lea all surprised.

“Morning? Why didn’t you wake me up? Did you fall asleep?”

Lea smiled. “Nahh, had a lot to think about and the view was pretty nice, even in the dark.” Riku lifted one eyebrow at him and it felt way too accusing. Lea didn’t like it.

“Either way, I figured I’d go look for that gummi piece. It’s so colourful it shouldn’t be hard to find if the raccoon left it somewhere. And maybe I could find something else to eat, I’m already starving again, I mean I’m not gonna be of any use here by the ship so I…”

He shut up when he realised that Riku was staring at him, eyebrows furrowed, making him look almost worried, but hair still a complete mess from sleeping. “Did you just catch any of what I said?”

“...Yeah, yeah I just…. Okay. I’ll be here.” Riku looked away and got up from the ground, taking the blanket back to the gummi ship right away.

 _What the heck was that?_ Lea thought before heading off with a final “Well, see you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We hope you're enjoying the story so far! Thanks for reading. ♥


	6. I look once more

At first Lea tried to find his way back to the place where they lost track of the raccoon yesterday, but it proved impossible. Everything looked the same in the forest, all trees and grass and moss. Lea was raised in a city where the closest you got to nature were a couple of well tended gardens. This really wasn’t his element.  
Instead of searching aimlessly Lea decided to make his way back to Jamestown, and keep his eyes open on the way. He caught a glimpse of a raccoon on the way, but had no way of knowing whether it was the same one as yesterday. It ran off before he could catch it, but Lea supposed it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like he could have interrogated the animal, anyway.

There were a lot of people in the streets of the town, mostly talking loudly and arguing amongst themselves. Lea didn’t think much of it, before he caught the words “monsters” and “living shadows.” 

“Excuse me.” he interrupted the nearest group of people. “What is this about monsters?”

“Where are you from, if you don’t know?” a rather large man said. “Those black demons appear out of nowhere, attacking anyone in sight.”

“At first we thought the indians had conjured them, but the monsters attack them, too.” a woman added. “We should never have left England.”

That started up another, much less interesting discussion among the group. Lea left them to go buy food. Apparently there were heartless in this world, though neither Lea nor Riku had seen any. Nevertheless he decided he should start looking for the keyhole in addition to the gummi piece.

Lea ran into Pocahontas after leaving the town, and asked her for further information about the monsters. She described them, and Lea was able to confirm that they were, in fact, heartless. She wasn’t sure where the heart of this world could be though.

“There are many very special places around here. The heart, as you call if, could be in several different places.”

“Oh well, I’ll look around.” Lea said. “Speaking of which, you haven’t seen a bright red gummi piece around, have you? A raccoon stole it yesterday.”

“Oh no! I’m so sorry, I have told him to stop taking things.” she answered, distressed. “Meeko hides the things he’s taken by Grandmother Willow. She’s the largest willow by the river. If you go upstream you can’t miss her.”

“Ok, thanks.” Lea said, slightly confused by her choice of words, and they parted ways. He had to go quite far before he found the tree, but Pocahontas was right, it was impossible to miss. That one willow felt like a small forest all by itself, with a clearing around it’s trunk. Lea looked around in awe. He had to show this place to Riku.

“What you’re looking for is right in front of you, child.” a soothing voice said.

Lea jumped and started looking around, but he couldn’t see anyone. However, he did see a hole in the trunk of the tree, just a few meters up, and caught a glimpse of something red. Whoever it was that had spoken had apparently been right. 

It took some climbing, but he finally had the gummi piece in his hand again. There were a couple of other things in the hole as well, but nothing they could use. Lea decided to leave them there and jumped down to the ground again.

“Come closer where I can see you, child.” the voice said, but there still wasn’t anyone there.

“Yeah, I’d like to see you too, buddy.” Lea said nervously. “Why don’t you show yourself?”

“On the other side, on the stub.” the voice called, and Lea followed, curious but with his guard up. Some might be playing tricks on him.

“Ah, there you are. Such a strange young man.”

Lea looked around, and yelled in surprise when he realised that the tree was the on talking. It even had a face, looking kind of like an old woman. Lea was terrified.

“Handsome, though.” the tree continued, and Lea decided that maybe it wasn’t so bad. “But too caught up in the past to look properly ahead, I fear.”

“Is that a riddle or something?” Lea asked, discomforted. The tree smiled at him.

“Letting go of the past means starting to look at what’s right in front of you.” she said. “You’ve taken the first step already, I think.”

“Yeah, I found the gummi piece, like you said.” Lea said. “Look, thanks for the chat and everything, but I should be getting back.”

“Of course. I hope things work out for you.” she said, and Lea walked away, fighting the impulse to run. He still felt mildly traumatized as he reached the gummi ship, where Riku was working on the engine with a frustrated expression. He looked up as Lea got closer.

“A tree just talked to me.” Lea said by way of greeting as he handed Riku the missing piece of gummi. 

“It happens. What did it say?” Riku said, not raising an eyebrow.

“I think it tried to give me philosophical advice about my life.” 

“Huh. I’ve only ever heard plants demand potions or magic.” Riku said, studying the piece. “And I think this might be exactly the thing I need.”

“Glad to be of help.” Lea said. “I also brought food, if you’re interested.”

Lea filled Riku in on the news from town as they ate. Riku agreed that the keyhole needed sealing.

“I’m coming with you to find it.” he said. 

“Are you sure?” Lea asked. “I mean, the ship...”

“...won’t repair itself, I know.” Riku sighed. “But I’m starting to see gummi pieces when I close my eyes. I don’t care if it means we will be stuck here longer, I need a break.”

They hadn’t walked very far when they heard the drums. It was a low, ominous beat, and the sound sent chills up Lea’s spine.

“Something’s wrong.” he said, and Riku nodded.

“Heartless, maybe. It’s coming from over there.”

They started running towards the sound. The drums were joined by screams as they got closer, and the say a small, wooden village. It was under attack from heartless, and tall men and women dressed in animal hides were fighting them. Riku and Lea joined the fight without a word.

The people seemed surprised by the addition of fighters, but nobody complained. With Lea’s and Riku’s help things calmed down fast in the village. However, when the heartless were gone, the men looked suspiciously at the newcomers. Lea was starting to wonder whether they would have to fight them as well.

“Lea!” said a voice. Pocahontas appeared from behind the men. She sounded out of breath, but she was smiling, so Lea took it as a good sign.

“Hiya.” Lea said. “Sorry for barging in like this, you looked like you could use the help.”

“We appreciate it.” she said, though by the looks of some of the others they would rather have handled it themselves. “Who’s your friend?”

Lea introduced them, then Riku asked about the heartless situation, and where they seemed to come from.

“We don’t know.” Pocahontas said. “They appear from the river, but not always. You guys seem to know more about them than we do. Can you help us get rid of them?” 

“We can seal the keyhole, if we can find it.” Lea said. “I asked you about that, remember? The heart of this world?”

“We should ask Kekata. He’s the wisest of our tribe.” she said, gesturing towards them to follow her. The people parted to let them through. Lea was a bit surprised that no one had said anything or objected, considering how displeased some of them looked. Pocahontas must have been some kind of authority figure around here.

She led them into a hut where an old man with long, gray hair sat in front of a fire. He looked up as they entered. He frowned sternly towards Riku and Lea, as if he was wondering what they were doing in his hut, but as Pocahontas introduced them and told him their story he seemed to relax.

“The Keyhole.” he mused. “If you cannot find it yourselves, then I cannot help you. Only those who are worthy can find it.”

“Well, we have the keyblades, that should be worthy enough.” Lea said, shrugging. “Do you know where it is or not?”

“‘Where’ is the wrong question, child.” the old man said. “When you learn to see the world as we do, you’ll find it.”

Kekata didn’t give them any more information than that, and they left his hut.

“Well, that was helpful.” Lea said sarcastically. Riku ignored him and turned towards Pocahontas instead.

“Any ideas about what he meant?” he asked. “Sealing that keyhole is really important.”

“I know, let me think...” she said, then was quiet for a while. “Maybe he meant you should see with you heart, not your eyes. Grandmother Willow taught me something similar once.”

“Where can we find her?” Riku asked, but Lea sighed.

“I know where she is.” he said. “Follow me. Thanks for the help.”

“Grandmother Willow is that creepy tree i told you about.” Lea told Riku later as they left the village. “The one who tried giving me advice.”

“Oh.” Riku said, considering it. “She didn’t tell you anything about the keyhole?”

“If she had, I would have sealed it already.” Lea muttered. “What does that even mean, see with your heart?”

“I don’t know.” Riku sighed. “I wish Sora was here.”

“Well, you certainly know how to make a guy feel welcome.” Lea said, sounding more angry than intended. Riku frowned at him.

“I didn’t say I wished you _weren’t_ here.” he said. “But Sora would probably be able to find that keyhole. He always thinks with his heart, rather than his mind.”

“So you’re saying we should try to be like Sora?”

“Maybe. Let’s just find that talking tree of yours.” Riku answered, gesturing towards Lea to take the lead. Lea did, hoping he still remembered the way, but it was pretty much only a matter of following the river. The sun was starting to set by the time they reached the giant tree that was Grandmother Willow, and twilight colored the leaves blue. The clearing around the trunk of the tree looked even more impressive this time, and Lea could hear Riku gasp in awe as they entered. Lea turned to look at him, and was struck by how well he seemed to fit into the environment, the bluish silver of his hair almost the same color as the leaves.

“Welcome back, child. I see you brought someone with you.” Grandmother Willow said, startling both of them even though they should have known to expect it. Lea led Riku towards the stump, and laughed at his expression as the face appeared in the tree.

“Oh, my another handsome young man.” she said, and Riku actually blushed. Lea snorted, and Riku punched him lightly in the shoulder.

“Um… We need help finding the keyhole.” Riku told the tree. “Something about seeing with your heart?”

“Then you already have your answer, young man.” she said. “The keyhole is in the heart of this world, and yet everything is connected. You must open your heart in order to see these connections, and thus the keyhole.”

“Riiiiight.” Lea said, unconvinced, then he realised something. “Wait a minute, why am I ‘child’ if he is ‘young man’? I’m older than he is, dammit!”

“That reaction is probably why.” Riku smirked, and Lea made a face at him. Grandmother Willow gave them an amused smile as she turned towards Lea.

“I told you before that what you’re looking for is right in front of you.” she said. “And I see you have been looking, but are you looking closely enough?”

“So you’re saying the keyhole would be right in front of us, if we knew how to look?” Riku asked. “Hmm...”

Lea watched him as he got on his feet and first looked around, then closed his eyes with a concentrated expression on his face. Lea frowned. He had the distinct feeling the tree was talking about something else, as well. Like with the gummi piece. She was smiling at him like they shared a secret, but it only made Lea more confused. And a bit irritated.

“Oh!” Riku suddenly exclaimed, and Lea turned his eyes back to him. Riku was standing completely still, but his eyes seemed to be looking at something Lea couldn’t see, something that simply wasn’t there. He had an air of wonder around him.

“What?” Lea asked. “Don’t tell me you can see the keyhole already?”

“Huh? Yeah, I can see it, and...” Riku said, smiling widely. “Lea, I can see the wind!”

“Quite impressive, young man.” the tree commented. “You have a very open heart, though you try to hide it.”

“It comes with the job.” Riku mumbled, slightly embarrassed.

“Then shouldn’t I be able to see it as well?” Lea asked, disgruntled. “I only got my heart back recently, but it’s very open. At least I think it is. I have one, anyway, that should count for something.”

“Maybe you just haven’t gotten used to it yet. Remember how hard it was to summon your keyblade in the beginning?” Riku said, grabbing Lea’s arm to drag him up to stand beside him. “This is similar, you can’t do it for yourself, it’s about being part of something bigger. Everything is connected. The worlds. Your family. Your friends. The people you want to protect. What makes us capable of wielding keyblades, only one step further. See with your heart.”

“That’s the lamest thing I’ve ever heard.” Lea said, and Riku scoffed.

“Hey, I’m trying to help you, here.” he said. “I could just seal it right now without you getting a peek at it, you know.”

“But you wouldn’t.” Lea said, and suddenly realised Riku hadn’t let go of his arm. He probably wasn’t even aware of it himself, as he still seemed to be watching whatever he was seeing in wonder. He wasn’t looking at Lea, but Lea had never had the opportunity to study him so close before. 

Riku’s eyes were wide in admiration of what he was seeing, a happy smile covering his lips and his hair... The wind was catching onto his hair in a weirdly gentle way, making the silver strands glitter in the sunshine. Right then, in front of Lea, Riku was simply beautiful. Suddenly Lea was happy they had crashed here. 

“Are you trying?”, RIku asked, without looking away from whatever he was looking at.

It felt like minutes had passed when it was probably only seconds, and Lea’s eyes were still glued to Riku. His hair was now shifting colours, was that the sun causing that? A slight purple shine, then green, suddenly red and blue. Where were the colours coming from? His gaze moved to the sky and the colours were everywhere, soft waves moving with the… The wind. His eyes widened suddenly.

“I-- I can see the wind, Riku”, he whispered and when he turned his eyes to where Riku had been looking the whole time all those waves of colour where forming a keyhole in the sky. Without another word he looked back at Riku who was grinning at him widely.

“Good job. Wanna seal it?”

For once Lea felt like he didn’t need to prove anything at all.

“Nah, go ahead.”

Riku looked at him in wonder for a few seconds, but Lea just grinned right back at him. Before long the keyhole was sealed in a much less flashy manner than usually and they stepped back down.

“Well done, my child, well done. What you need is always near, but only with an open heart can you truly find it. Now my boys, I think you have other places to save, am I not right?”

They did yes, but what did she mean? Lea felt almost stupid. They thanked Grandmother Willow for the help and headed back towards the gummi ship. But what had that tree hag really meant? Lea couldn’t get it out of his mind for the whole walk back.

He’d been admiring Riku’s hair, that’s all he’d been doing. And come on, Riku’s hair was silly but actually very nice. And it was there, right in front of him. _Oh._

Did-- could she mean he wanted Riku? What would an old tree know about his sexual preferences anyway? Obviously Riku was really good looking and hot, he’d come to terms with that ages ago. Recently staring had become one of his favorite hobbies, after all. He just didn’t think pursuing it for real would be a good idea.

But she’d said something like “too caught up in the past to look properly ahead” that first time. So basically a tree had been trying to get him laid? _Man._ Lea couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He shrugged it off with a grin, though, when Riku sent him a questioning look.

Back at the gummi ship Lea did his best to help Riku in any way he could, handing him the pieces he needed and holding anything that needed holding. They didn’t talk much, but it didn’t feel weird. Somehow, Lea felt strangely calm, like if everything around them had accepted his existence. 

“If you’re hungry I brought some corn and fruits.”

Pocahontas’ voice suddenly shook them out of their work, neither of them having heard her footsteps as she’d walked up to them. The food did come at exactly the right time though, as barely the sight of it made Lea’s stomach rumble. 

“Is there still a lot to fix?” Pocahontas asked as they sat on the ground, enjoying the food. Lea didn’t have any idea so he looked at Riku.

“Not that much, I’m sure I’ll get it done tonight. So, we could leave tomorrow morning.”

“Then I insist you stay with us tonight.”, Pocahontas added.

It felt like a long time since Lea had slept so well. The tent-like construction was warm and there was someone keeping guard on the outside. It felt safe. They’d slept on different sides of the tent, in some sort of sleeping bags, and when Lea woke up he felt great. Today could be greeted with a smile.

The basket of corn they were given as they left the village ended up filling up almost all of the space in the back of the gummi ship. Pocahontas greeted them farewell with a line that made Lea feel like everyone knew too much. “Grandmother Willow is always right”, she said, and Lea nodded in quiet acknowledgement. 

Because at least this time she was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. ❤


	7. Did it make you happy then?

They landed just outside a city in the next world, determined to stay out of sight from the locals, but also not wanting to have to run around trying to find people again, as it had not worked well last time. Mostly Riku was just happy to get out of the ship again. 

Somewhere along the way Lea had gotten hungry and tried grilling some of the corn in his hand. The result had been _popping_ to say the least and Riku would not let Lea get away with it before every single popped corn was cleaned out of the ship. The ship still smelled of something burning and Riku gratefully filled his lungs with the fresh air of the new world.

Of all the worlds Riku had visited so far, Traverse Town was the one this world reminded him of the most. The style of the buildings were different, but it had a similar air to it, a cheerfulness just barely concealing the threat of something darker underneath.

They walked around aimlessly for a while, just looking around and occasionally stopping to listen to the street musicians that seemed to be standing in every corner. They played well, and Lea seemed to be enjoying himself, but Riku couldn't shake the feeling that somebody, or something, was watching them.

“What's wrong?” Lea asked him the fourth time Riku looked behind him Riku shook his head.

“I'm not sure. It's just a feeling.” he said. “Do you feel anything?”

“Sure, I have a lot of feelings.” Lea said, winking at Riku, who just rolled his eyes and continued walking.

A sudden scream broke through the cheerful notes of music. Riku and Lea immediately started running in the direction of the sound. It came from a small alley by the harbour, but neither of them could see the person screaming. Instead they found a couple of Shadows silently moving away. Riku and Lea defeated them without a second thought.

“That was a bit anti-climatic, wasn't it?” Lea said, and Riku would have agreed, if a sound from behind them hadn't interrupted him. He turned around just in time to see a shadow quickly move away from them. Not a Shadow, but the shadow of a man, though he could not see the person casting it.

“Come on!” Riku said, and ran after the shadow man. They followed him for quite a while, unable to catch up, and when they finally thought they'd catch him he slipped in through an open door. The door guard standing outside the building didn't notice the shadow, but he held up a hand to stop Riku and Lea when they approached.

“Gentlemen!” he said. “This is a five star restaurant. I cannot let you in without decent attire.”

“But didn’t you see...nevermind. What’s wrong with our clothes?” Riku asked. The doorman simply raised an eyebrow in response and turned away.

“Think there’s a way in around back?” Lea asked, looking halfway between amused and insulted.

“Maybe, through the kitchen door. I doubt we can sneak in unnoticed, though.”

“New clothes it is then. This world’s fashion is not exactly what I had in mind, but it’ll do for now.” Lea shrugged and started walking down the street in search of a shop. Riku cast another worried glance at the door, but since he couldn’t hear any panicked screaming from the other side, he figured they’d have time. He turned around to follow Lea.

They found a small clothing store in one of the busiest streets. The shopkeeper spent a few uncomfortable moments enquiring about where they came from, but then finally shrugged and started burying them in piles of clothes she expected them to try on. 

Lea flat out refused to even try the pants-stuck-in-knee high-socks combination Riku ended up getting stuck with, mostly because both Lea and the shopkeeper said he looked so _dashing_ in them, and he was too flustered and eager to get away to argue. Lea went for a full black suit instead, his legs completely lost in the loose pants. The hat that belonged to the outfit wouldn't fit around his thick hair, much to Riku’s amusement and the shopkeeper’s chagrin.

“The outfit is not complete without the hat!” she pouted. “That hair is a disgrace! I could recommend a good barber...”

“We’ll take the hat as well, thank you. We’ll figure something out.” Riku interrupted, barely concealing his laughter. Lea’s face was still dark with anger when they exited the shop.

“‘A disgrace’, she said. The _nerve_ of that...”

“Stop it, it’s just a cultural difference, that’s all.” Riku said, adjusting his own hat self-consciously. “I think I preferred being a llama. The sooner we get this over with the better. ”

His words had the desired effect. Lea grinned at him.

“Really? But you look so cute like that.” he said.

“You said the same thing then.” Riku replied dryly. “Come on, let’s get back to the restaurant.”

“And a romantic dinner for two. Sounds lovely.”

Riku rolled his eyes, but didn't bother replying. Lea in a good mood was annoying, but still better than the alternative.

They walked back to the restaurant, where the doorman let them in with an approving nod.

“Table for two?” a white-clad waiter asked, then led them to a small table in the corner. Riku looked around the restaurant in awe. The only thing he’d seen that was comparable to this was the ballroom in Beast’s Castle, but despite the grandeur this place had a more comfortable, homey atmosphere. A band as on stage, playing the same kind of music they’d heard on the street and... _wait a second_...was that alligator playing an instrument?

Lea laughed as he noticed what was Riku staring at.

“Don’t worry, you won’t turn into an alligator.” he said. “I’ll protect you.”

Riku made a face at him, but didn’t comment as the waiter handed them the menu. Lea ordered wine before Riku had time to react.

“We’re not here for fun, you know.” Riku said as the waiter left. “We’re supposed to be looking for that shadow.”

“Well, if he’s here, he’s not causing any trouble. I don’t see him.” Lea said, smirking at Riku from behind his menu. “Besides, there’s no rule against having fun on the job. Just look at all this food!”

Riku had to admit he was quite hungry, especially after the corn fiasco that morning.They both ordered the house specialty, then there was silence for a while as the waiter disappeared. Riku took a moment to look around in the restaurant, but he didn’t see any hint of the shadow anywhere. His eyes were drawn back to the alligator on stage, wondering if that was a real animal or a transformed human. Maybe the animals of this world were intelligent. Suddenly he realised that Lea was watching him.

“What?” Riku asked. Lea gave him a smile, not embarrassed in the least at having been caught staring.

“Just looking.” he said. “You seem to enjoy the music. Wanna dance?”

“‘No’ is not a strong enough word.” Riku said, horrified. Lea laughed.

“I bet you’re just saying that because you can’t dance.” he teased. “I could teach you.”

“I can dance just fine.” Riku said, then hurriedly added as Lea opened his mouth again: “And don’t challenge me to prove it. It won’t work.”

“Worth a try.” Lea said. “I’ll get that memorized for a later occasion, though.”

Riku was saved from having to find a reply for that strange statement by their food arriving. The gumbo was a bit hot, but tasted wonderful. Riku was thoroughly enjoying the food as he noticed Lea staring at him again

“What now?” Riku asked irritably. Lea shook his head.

“Nothing. It’s just, you look like...Are you eating that or making love to it?” he smirked. Riku blushed. “Shut up.” was all the retort he could manage.

“Oh, I’m not complaining.” Lea said.”Quite the opposite. Just wanted to know whether or not you were doing it on purpose.”

“I wasn't doing anything.” Riku said.

“Then I really want to know what you look like when you try.” Lea said, giving Riku a wink. Riku stared at him for a moment, then decided he couldn’t deal with this right now.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” he said, getting up from the table and completely disregarding Lea’s “Do you want me to come with?” He walked fast, while trying not to look like he was in a hurry. When he entered the bathroom the first thing he did was wash his face with cold water. Seriously, what did Lea think he was doing? Just because he was trying to get over Roxas...

A sudden movement in the corner of his eye made Riku spin around, just in time for him to see the same shadow as before, rushing towards him. Riku instinctively summoned his keyblade the moment before the impact hit him, sending him flying through the door leading back into the restaurant. There was a surprised murmur among the guests, quickly followed by screams as heartless started pouring out of the door.

“Riku!” Lea yelled over the guests, and Riku didn’t have to look to know he was already by Riku’s side, getting ready to fight.

“I found our shadow man.” Riku said, getting on his feet. “I think he’s controlling the heartless.”

“The Shadow Man?” somebody asked behind them. “I thought he was dead.”

“Apparently not. Here he comes!”

The Shadow Man, or at least his shadow, appeared in the doorway, completely surrounded by heartless. Lea and Riku lunged forward, smashing heartless left and right as they tried to get close to him. For a moment it looked like they were succeeding, then the Shadow Man cast a spell of some kind. Riku looked around to see what effect it had, and found himself face to face with his own shadow, suddenly both solid and hostile.

“Not again.” Riku muttered as he blocked the shadow version of his own keyblade. “Hey Lea, wanna switch shadows? It’ll take forever to defeat myself.”

“So we should take each other down, is that what you’re saying?” Lea smirked, his back suddenly hitting Riku’s. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“I can’t even tell you how much I’m going to enjoy beating the crap out of shadow-you.” Riku said, gritting his teeth.

“Kinky.” Lea laughed. “Let’s go!”

They spun around each other, each facing the others shadow. Riku soon found that Lea’s shadow was a formidable opponent, but it was still easier than fighting someone who knew all your moves and performed them equally well. In the end he was proud to realise he had defeated Lea’s shadow before Lea had defeated his. Lea was still doing much better than most of the other people left in the restaurant, most of which seemed to be losing the battle against their shadows. The alligator on the stage was running around in circles, trying get away from the shadow chasing it. Riku returned his attentions to the culprit behind the madness.

The Shadow Man made an attempt to run when he saw Riku coming for him again, but with so many people blocking every entrance, there was no way for him to escape. He then tried attacking by turning into a snake, but after defeating Lea’s shadow he was hardly a challenge anymore. Riku cornered him easily, and Lea, having finally defeated Riku’s shadow and wearing a smug expression, joined him in casting light-based magic towards the Shadow Man. With a soundless scream and and expression of utter horror, he was gone. His magic went with him.

The people in the restaurant was laughing and crying of relief as their shadows returned to their original two-dimensional and less lethal state. Lea grinned towards Riku.

“So much for not meddling, huh.” he said, and Riku laughed.

“Oh no, look at all this damage.” said a young woman behind them, walking around the smashed restaurant with despair in her face. “And so soon after reopening. How are we ever going to be able to afford the repairs?”

A young man, her boyfriend or husband probably, tried to comfort her, and even the alligator at their feet wore an expression of sympathy and hopelessness. Riku gave Lea a look. 

“I guess we never paid for the meal.” he said, and Lea grinned.

“It was damned delicious, too. Shame we never got around to dessert. Next time we’ll start with that.”

The couple looked up at them, confused. Riku shrugged.

“I doubt it will cover all the damage, but it’ll help.” he said as he handed over a rather large amount of munny to the shocked couple, and refusing to take it back when they said they couldn’t accept it. “In exchange, you could help us find the heart of this world. We need to seal it, to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.”

“The heart of this world... would be the bayou, wouldn’t it?” the woman said slowly, sounding overwhelmed. “Close to Mama Oldie’s, maybe?”

“How do we find it?”

After giving directions, and lending them a rowboat, the couple sent them on their way with words of gratitude and a severe warning against taking directions from alligators. Riku couldn’t for the life of him imagine why the last thing was necessary, but he thanked them all the same.

“You’re quite the gentleman. Who would have thought?” Lea smirked as he got into the boat, his expression faltering for a few seconds as the boat rocked beneath his feet.

“Sit down.” Riku urged as he grabbed the oars. “And it’s not like I couldn’t afford it. Running around different worlds for years is surprisingly lucrative. And it’s what Sora would have done.”

“I’m sure he’ll be proud.” Lea said jokingly, but with a bitter undertone Riku didn’t like. Part of him wanted to press the matter, but they were alone in a rowboat on unknown waters. A wobbly rowboat. Better not take any unnecessary risks.

“You could take the other oar, you know.” Riku said instead, and Lea almost flinched. He looked rather lost.

“I can’t row.” he said. “Unlike you, I wasn’t born on an island. I’m a city boy.”

“Fine. Just sit still and keep a lookout for shallows. We don’t want to get stranded out here.”

“Agreed.”

They rowed on in silence. It was getting darker by the minute, and Riku was starting to regret not waiting until morning for this journey. Rowing around in the darkness was dangerous, even on waters you knew. On the other hand, the water seemed still, except for the occasional curious alligator causing the surface to ripple, and Riku was pretty sure they could handle those, even if they weren’t as friendly as the one in the restaurant. They weren’t trying to guide them at least.

The only real threat to their safety was Lea, who had habit of standing up and looking over the edge of the boat every time something interesting caught his eye. Riku was getting tired of telling him to sit down. Also his arms were starting to hurt from all the rowing.

“Hey, what’s that?” Lea asked, pointing to the side. “There’s a light over there.”

Riku looked over to where Lea was pointing. There was a small light in the distance, but it didn’t look like it came from a house. Instead it seemed to be moving around slightly. Riku blinked as another light suddenly appeared, then laughed.

“It’s fireflies.” he said, smiling as more of the little bugs appeared closer to the boat. 

“Fireflies, huh?” Lea repeated, getting up again and leaning forward to get a better look. The boat rocked dangerously.

“Lea, for the last time, sit...” Riku stated, then the front of the boat hit a shallow. They weren’t going fast, so Riku doubted there would be any damage to the boat. However, Lea, who was already off balance from standing, stumbled around in the boat trying to regain balance. Riku let go of the oars to reach out towards him, trying to get him to settle down, and at the same time Lea finally lost his balance completely. He fell, hitting the edge of the boat. Riku, unfortunately, was leaning in the same direction, which was enough to cause the narrow boat to flip over. Riku barely had time to register what was happening before he hit the water.

Considering that they’d just hit a shallow the water was surprisingly deep. When Riku resurfaced his first thought was to catch the boat before it went floating away. It had only moved a few metres and he caught up to it almost right away. Looking around for the best shore to pull it to he realised that Lea was nowhere to be seen. 

“Lea!” Riku shouted. There was a loud splashing as Lea surfaced a few meters away from him, gasping for breath and flailing around violently, before sinking again.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Riku muttered, casting an unsure eye at the boat before letting go of it and diving in Lea’s direction.

Finding Lea was easy enough, but getting hold of him was another thing entirely. Lea was still flailing around in panic, and would probably have hit Riku had the water not restricted his movements. In the end Riku had to drag him back to the surface by grabbing his hair and pulling him along. It was hardly ideal, but it worked. After spending a few moments gasping for air Lea calmed down enough for Riku to drag him ashore. It was more a large shallow than an actual island, but it was enough to keep Lea from drowning. Riku made sure he was ok before turning around and heading into the water again.

“Hey, where...” Lea started before he was interrupted by a coughing fit. “Where are you going?”

He sounded almost scared. Riku tried giving him a reassuring smile, but he may have been too irritated by the whole situation to succeed.

“I’m just going to get the boat. I’ll be right back.” Riku said, and started swimming. The boat was slowly drifting away from them, but it hadn’t gone that far. Riku caught up with it quicker than he expected to. 

When Riku came back with the boat Lea was sitting in the middle of the island, as far away from the water as possible, hugging his knees and looking utterly depressed. He looked small (if someone as tall as Lea could ever be called small), almost fragile with his wet hair lying flat against his head and neck.

“The oars are gone.” Riku said as he tied the boat to the root of a small tree growing on the island. Lea didn’t look up at him.  
“I found something else, though.” Riku continued, sitting down beside Lea and putting the wet, misformed hat the shopkeeper forced them to buy on his head. “Look, now it fits.”

Lea gave him a surprised look, then a grin spread on his face.

“I bet the shopkeeper would be happy to see that.” he said, laughing as he removed the hat from his head and threw it back into the water. “Seriously though, who would want to wear this sort of thing?”

“I guess these clothes are ruined now as well. Not that it really matters.” Riku said. They were silent for a while. It was getting really dark by now, the only light coming from the fireflies and the stars. Riku found it hard to always know which was which.

“Why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t swim?” Riku finally asked.

“I didn’t think it would be an issue.”

“Really? You got into a small boat, on unknown waters, completely unable to sit still when told, and you didn’t think it would be an issue!” Riku said, a bit more harshly than intended. Lea actually flinched. Apparently almost drowning and having to be saved by Riku was a hard blow. Riku sighed.

"Whatever. Just be grateful I grew up with this stuff."

Lea looked up. "Why thank you. So how exactly do you plan on getting us out of here?"

Riku smirked. "This isn't the first time I've lost my oars. You have more in common with Sora than you think."

Before long they were back in the boat, Riku using his suitably flat keyblade as an oar, moving it from side to side of the boat as if it was a canoe. Lea was sitting completely still in his end, staring straight ahead.

"You are allowed to breathe, you know. Besides we still need to find the keyhole."

Lea let out a deep breath, relaxing just a little bit. Despite all the trouble he'd caused there was something adorable about him, really. To think that all it had taken to completely break down the sass was some water. He'd have to remember that. And give the man swimming lessons. 

A small smile set on Riku's lips as he kept rowing the best he could with only a keyblade. It was completely dark around them now and the air was quickly getting colder. They'd have to turn around as soon as possible, Riku thought, since wet and cold wasn't a great combination.

As if on que Lea sneezed. 

When Riku looked up at him all he could see was hundreds and hundreds of fireflies starting to show up behind Lea. 

"Look at that!" He said, staring.

Lea carefully turned around, eyes growing large as they found the flies. They were flying around, creating different shapes with their lights and while the boys were staring one larger shape started to show.

"Is it just me or are those flies making a..."

"Keyhole!" Lea shouted and instantly forgot any previous fears of falling into the water again. Within seconds his keyblade was out and swirling through the air, Lea again standing in the boat.

"I'll seal it!" 

And he did. Riku would never again complain about Sora's waving and light shows. Lea had taken that to a whole new level and the fact that the keyhole was made out of small lights just made it even more _shiny_.

The keyhole clicked shut, most of the fireflies disappeared and Lea stepped back, stumbling over the bench he'd been sitting on.

This time Riku was quick enough and caught him, causing Lea to crash into him instead of falling over the edge. As Lea withdrew from the weird embrace and shuffled back to his own bench Riku again found it impossible to be annoyed at him.

"Now let's head back before we freeze. And remind me to never get on a boat with you again."

Lea just snorted.

The way back took longer than either of them would ever like to admit and once they reached the city they were both shivering from the cold, despite that Lea had ended up creating a small fire in his palm to keep them warm.

Thankful they had been smart enough to take their own clothes back to the gummi ship, they changed back into them. Never had Riku's jeans felt so comfortable.

"Looks like you'll have to deal with your coat for a little longer."

"Dude, it feels like reuniting with a lover." Lea almost moaned as he put it on. Riku quickly looked away, just giving a small hmph in reply. He didn't notice Lea watching him until he had finally pulled up the zipper of his west, silently wishing he wore sleeves. Riku arched an eyebrow in Lea’s direction.

“Just enjoying the view.” Lea answered, grinning. “We should probably try to get some sleep before we move on.”

“Agreed.” Riku said looking around the small ship. “You can take the back space, I’ll make do with the chairs.”

“Sleeping in a chair is bad for your neck.” Lea said, grinning in an unsettling way. “I’m sure there’s enough room for two in the back.”

“It’s really cramped.” Riku said. “Also...”

“Are you scared of me?” Lea interrupted, stunning Riku into silence. In any other situation he would have laughed at the absurdity of the question, but with the way Lea had been acting lately…

Riku narrowly avoided sighing in relief as a sudden distress signal cut the conversation short. He turned hurriedly away from Lea and towards the keyboard. Any relief he may or may not have felt disappeared as he saw the origin of the distress call. 

_Disney Town._

“We have to go. Now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	8. Adore my battle scars

Lea kept stealing glances at Riku for the entire duration of the journey. Riku had an expression of worry on his face, and kept biting his lip as he steered the ship through space at an alarming speed. Lea usually enjoyed fast rides, but he was starting to fear that they would crash into something before reaching Disney Town.

“Hey, slow down a little.” he finally said, after they narrowly avoided colliding with a large heartless ship. “Whatever’s happened, it’s probably not that bad.”

“It’s bad.” Riku answered, looking sternly out the window as they zig-zagged between space junk. “Mickey is one of the strongest fighters I know. He wouldn’t have called unless it was serious. So we have to get there fast.”

“If you say so. I’d still prefer to get there _alive_ , though.” Lea said. Riku didn’t respond. He just gritted his teeth and continued his hazardous steering. Lea sighed and closed his eyes, figuring he’d be better of not watching their narrow encounters with death and instead try to relax for a bit. It didn’t look like he’d be able to sleep any time soon.

Sooner than Lea had thought possible without using portals the gummi ship landed in the hangar. The ship had barely settled down before Riku made it out of the door, keyblade already in his hand, and Lea followed him wordlessly. The hangar was overrun by heartless, mostly Shadows but also some larger, unknown ones. They didn’t take much more effort to kill, though.

They had almost cleared the area of heartless when there was a sound above them, indicating that a second gummi ship was landing. 

Lea and Riku disposed of the last heartless, then paused to watch the new ship land and the door open.

“Riku!” Sora exclaimed, partly happy, partly confused. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know any more than you do, we just got here a minute ago.” Riku answered, still looking worried. “We should hurry.”

“Right. Come on everyone, let’s go.” Sora said, making a ‘follow me’’-gesture towards the ship. Lea turned around, suddenly realising what should have been obvious all along: Sora didn’t come alone.

Lea hesitated as two girls and one boy appeared, running past him to follow Sora out the door. Riku, the inconsiderate bastard, had already gone. Lea stared at the back of the blond boy for a moment. The boy that wasn’t Roxas. 

“Dammit!” Lea muttered, realising the others had left him behind. He rushed out of the door to follow them.

With six keyblade wielders making their way through the heartless infested courtyard and castle corridors took no time at all. Lea actually started to think that even if the thirteen Xehanorts had shown up they wouldn’t have had a problem. 

The population of heartless seemed to be thickest in front of the library, so that’s where they were headed. Before they reached the door, however, it was thrown open, and Donald flew through it and and landed unceremoniously upside down on the floor, making loud noises that was, presumably, swearing.

“Donald.” Sora yelled, kneeling down by the duck while the rest of them continued through the door. The library was a mess, a shelf had fallen over and books were scattered across the floor, along with stray pieces of paper. There were black spots on the wall from fire-based attacks. King Mickey lay unconscious underneath one such spot. Daisy seemed to be healing his wounds, while Minnie held a barrier around them. Goody was still standing, with his shield raised and his back against the door, but he seemed tired as well. In front of him stood the one he was fighting, surrounded by heartless.

_Huh, deja vu_. Lea thought, as Maleficent finally looked up and realised they were there. She made a disgruntled face at them.

“Oh, well, I suppose three worlds will have to do, for now.” she said. “Once I have them, rest assured I will be back for the rest.”

She disappeared into the shadows, her laughter staying a few seconds longer than her body. The few heartless she left behind were swiftly taken care of, and then Goofy wearily sat down on the floor as Minnie dropped the barrier.

“Mickey!” Riku shouted, hurrying to the unconscious mouse’s side and joined Daisy in casting curative spells. “What happened to him?”

“Maleficent took us by surprise.” Minnie said. “There was no sign of her before the heartless suddenly appeared in every corner of the castle. Mickey told me to send the distress call, before heading to the library. We found him like this. Maleficent shot him in the back.”

Riku looked more distressed than Lea had ever seen him before. Lea found himself inappropriately jealous of the obvious concern, and wondered if Riku would have looked the same if it had been _him_ lying there. Not that he would have been awake to see it. Lea shook his head to clear his thoughts. Minnie seemed to notice Riku’s concern as well, and gently touched his shoulder.

“He will be ok, Riku. He should wake up soon.” she said, and the worry eased a little on Riku’s face. “In the meantime, we have to determine what it was Maleficent stole.”

“Easier said than done, in this mess.” Lea muttered. “What was she after last time?”

“She wanted the data to the worlds.” Minnie answered, frowning. “‘Three worlds’ she said. But which three?”

Minnie went towards the computer to investigate, and Lea leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms and taking in the scene before him. Riku was still kneeling by the king’s side. Daisy had left to go talk to Donald, and Sora and Goofy were laughing at something. Kairi, Aqua and Not-Roxas was standing a bit apart from the others, Kairi apparently explaining something to the other two. Somehow Lea was starting to feel like a third wheel. Or eleventh wheel, whatever. Twelfth, if you counted the little cricket making wild gestures towards Minnie by the computer.

“It’s true.” Minnie finally said, causing all the other conversations to hush. “The data to three worlds are missing: _The Castle of Dreams_ , _Agrabah_ and _the Land of Dragons_.”

“What does she want with the data anyway?” Lea asked. Minnie looked unsure, then there was a noise from the other side of the room. Mickey had apparently woken up, and Riku, being uncharacteristically gentle, was helping him sit up. Lea fought down the strange jealousy that threatened to surface again. Sora was one thing, but Lea blatantly refused to compete with a mouse.

“The data...” Micky said weakly. “The data gives her easier access to people’s hearts. She could summon armies of heartless in no time at all. She could drag all the worlds into darkness. She must be stopped!”

“Then we’ll stop her!” Sora said determinedly. “We’ve done that before, no problem.”

“Do we have any idea where she’ll strike first?” Riku asked. “Or should we send someone to each place?”

“That would probably be best.” Mickey agreed, getting on his feet with effort. “You need to divide into teams. I’ll stay here, in case she comes back.”

There was silence for a moment as everybody thought it over. Lea was the first to speak.

“I’m _not_ going to Agrabah.” he said. “I hate that place. No matter how much reconnaissance you do there the streets never make any sense.”

Sora chuckled at that, but Lea was more interested in the small smile on Riku’s face.

“Ven and I have been to the Castle of Dreams before.” Aqua said. “I don’t know any of the other worlds.”

“You two head over there, then.” Mickey nodded. “Sora, you, Donald and Goofy take Agrabah.”

“Right. Aladdin and the others will be happy to see us.”

“That leaves the Land of Dragons for you and Lea.” Mickey said, looking at Riku. It wasn’t phrased like a question, but Lea thought it felt like one anyway. He was getting a bit annoyed by the whole thing.

“Not a problem, I’ve been there before.” Riku said. “Will you be ok on your own, if she comes back?”

“She won’t take me by surprise again.” Mickey smiled. “Good luck, everyone.”

 

“What’s the Land of Dragons like?” Lea asked later when they were back in the gummi ship. “It sounds pretty awesome.”

“Don’t get your hopes up.” Riku said, smiling slightly. “I only ever saw one dragon, and he was small enough to live comfortably in your hair.”

“Pity. And lay off my hair. I’m not cutting it.”

The journey was much shorter than the last one, even though Riku no longer seemed to be trying to break any speed records. Lea listened to him talk about his last visit to the Land of , Dragons, mostly about the geographical locations and the people who lived there. Lea never managed to get a clear picture of what Riku had actually been doing there, but he suspected it had something to do with Sora. It usually did.

They landed by a small river, close to the broken, burned pieces of what had once been a wooden wagon. Beyond a low fence Lea could see the outline of a city.

“Couldn’t we have landed a bit closer?” Lea complained, but Riku shook his head.

“They use rockets as weapons here. I didn’t want to get shot at.” he answered. Lea had to agree that was a fair point, but the walk to the city still seemed unnecessarily long. Once they entered the city, however, it was hard for him to remember the mission and not get distracted by the colorful people and the unlimited number of merchant stands.

“We don’t have time for sightseeing.” Riku reminded him firmly, as Lea stopped to examine a black robe with a fiery red dragon embroidered on it. “We have to warn the emperor about the attack.”

“Yeah, about that...” Lea said, looking up at the impressive walls and numerous soldier guarding the palace. “I don’t suppose we can just walk right in?”

“Of course not, I’m not Sora.” Riku said, smiling. “They’d never let us trough. We’re gonna have to sneak in and talk to the emperor directly.”

“I hate sneaking. How are we supposed to get in? Using the darkness?”

“That’s what I did last time, but it won’t work now. Besides, I’ve got another idea.” Riku said, gesturing towards Lea to follow him.

“I feel so reassured.” Lea muttered, but kept equal pace with Riku as they walked towards a spot on the wall hidden from the guards at the gate.

“We’re going to climb this thing?” Lea asked. “It’s going to take forever.”

“We don’t have to, if I remember correctly...Ah! There it is!” Riku said, pointing forwards. “It” turned out to be a small whirlwind, a stray bit of magic that was probably never supposed to be there. Riku said the land had plenty of spots like this, though they were easy to miss if you didn’t know they were there.

Using the whirlwind they made it over the wall in no time. Lea was honestly surprised none of the guards noticed them, but Riku just shrugged.  
“They’ve had peace for a while now. Besides, who would dare?”

Lea chuckled. They stayed in the shadow of the wall as they moved towards a small door at the side of the palace. It was locked, but the lock was no match for their keyblades. The door led to the kitchen, where plenty of servants ran around looking busy. Riku walked on as if he had every right in the world to be there, and Lea followed his example. A few of the servants looked up at them briefly, but no one dared question them. Lea was starting to enjoy this.

Riku apparently remembered the structure of the palace pretty well. They soon entered a wide corridor, leading up to a large pair of doors, guarded by heavily armoured soldiers. They crossed their lances as Riku and Lea approached.

“Let us through, we have urgent business with the emperor.” Riku said, sounding more authoritative than Lea had ever heard him. If he had used that voice when he was teaching Lea might actually have learned something. Or started hating him of rebellious instinct. The guards didn’t seem so impressed, though.

“You cannot see the emperor without General Shang’s permission. Leave. Now.”

“Worth a try.” Riku muttered, then summoned his keyblade and pointed it at the guards. “Zero Graviga.”

The guards flew up in the air, frozen in position and slowly circling around. 

“Sorry, but like I said, it’s urgent.” Riku said apologetically to them, then walked through the doors. Lea was trying to stifle his laughter as he followed.

The throne room was pretty impressive. It was a large, spacious room colored in red and gold, and in the middle of it sat the emperor, a thin man with a funny hat and a beard that would have made Yen Sid jealous. He looked to be in the middle of reading a scroll as they entered.

“Who are you and how did you get in here?” the emperor asked, surprisingly calm considering two unknown and possibly dangerous men had just broken into his palace.

“I recall you asking something similar last time.” Riku said, smiling at the old man. “It’s a similar situation as well. The city is about to be attacked, and you need to evacuate the civilians and prepare your soldiers for battle.”

“You barge in here and give me orders in my own palace!” the emperor said, sounding more amused than angry. “You must be that rude young man from back then. Young Sora’s friend. Nice to finally see your face.”

Riku grinned, but didn’t have time to answer as the doors suddenly flung open again. Two soldiers, a man and a woman, burst in with their swords ready. Through the doors Lea could see the other guards still spinning around silently.

“Your Highness, are you hurt?” the female soldier asked, not taking her eyes of Lea and Riku. Lea cast an eye on his companion, but Riku hadn’t summoned his keyblade so Lea figured they were safe.

“I am perfectly fine, thank you, my child.” the emperor said. “However, it seems the country is in great danger again. This young man was just explaining the situation. Lower your weapons.”

The pair still looked a bit unsure, but obeyed the emperor nonetheless. Riku turned towards the emperor again.

“The situation is this: A powerful sorceress and her… accomplice have stolen a device that could possibly provide them with an army of heartless. This is only one of the three places they target, but we must be prepared for war. If the city falls her army will be unstoppable.”

“Send word for the evacuation of the citizens and prepare the troops for battle.” the Emperor said. “Then return here. We must discuss strategy.”

The pair bowed, then moved hurriedly away. The emperor turned towards Riku again. 

“There are things you are not telling us.” he said. It wasn’t a question. Riku, who didn’t seem to be in the mood to respect authority figures, just shrugged. Lea briefly wondered if he had been a bad influence on Riku, or if the other had always been like this. Throughout their travels he had seemed...well... _weaker_ somehow. Less confident, except when in battle. Now he was ordering an emperor around in his own throne room. Sure, they had sort of done that with Kusco as well back in Llama Land, but even there Riku had held back in front of the emperor. Not here, though. Lea smirked as he watched his companion win a staring contest against the ruler of an empire. _Rude young man_ , the emperor had called him. It was quite attractive.

The emperor sighed, apparently giving up his endeavor to get more information out of Riku.The two soldiers soon returned, bringing some others with them. They assembled in a half circle around the throne. Without a word Riku placed himself in the middle, and gave Lea a quick look before he explained the situation again to the newcomers.

The soldiers started commenting, suggesting theories of where the attack might come from. Riku seemed to know the world well enough to follow. From the mountain, they said and Riku nodded, pointing out that “summoning an army of heartless without anyone noticing would be easy there”.

Somewhere around that point Lea stopped actually listening to the discussion. All he could hear was that authoritative tone in Riku’s voice, giving no space for questioning anything of what he said. Maybe he was staring, but as everyone’s attention was on Riku no one would notice. His eyebrows were slightly furrowed in concentration and he was gesturing as he explained, the muscles on his bare arms shifting slightly as he moved. 

_This is so not a good time to notice his sexy arms._

He withdrew his eyes from the boy, taking a quick look around the group. Everyone was still discussing so he doubted he’d really missed anything important. As his eyes reached the girl from the pair that had barged in earlier. She gave him a curious look. With a shrug he tried to pretend he had no idea what she could be implying. The little shit had the nerve to smirk. 

Maybe knowing the plan would be a good idea after all. Lea turned his attention back towards what Riku was saying.

“...know this enemy. I will be in the vanguard, together with the strongest of your soldiers. The key to winning will be retrieving the artifact from the sorceress. We will try to concentrate the battle outside the city walls, giving us the advantage coverage from above. Lea will join the archers on the wall…”

“Woah, wait a minute!” Lea interrupted. “Seriously? You want me to sit back on the wall and just look at the battle. Like hell!”

“Don’t be stupid!” Riku snapped, frowning at him. “I need you on a separate unit, because if the vanguard fails you will the best hope the city has of surviving, and under no circumstances can Maleficent win this war, understand?”

Lea blinked, surprised by the force of the answer. For the first time Riku had turned that tone on him specifically. He wasn’t going down without a fight, though.

“So you stay at the wall, I fight as well as you do. Besides, as much as I hate to admit it, looking the big picture you’re more important than I am.”

“Not true, and irrelevant.” Riku answered. “The point is that you are a better ranged fighter than I am, meaning you will be a great asset on the wall. You will get your share of fighting, I can promise you that, and like I said, the vanguard will be counting on you to cover our asses from above.”

“Fine.” Lea muttered, giving in. “But I don’t like it.”

“If you’re quite finished fighting amongst yourselves...” the general said impatiently, and Riku turned back towards the table. The lone girl gave Lea a sympathetic smile, and Lea tuned out again, feeling rejected and slightly aroused by the way Riku had ordered him around. 

Soon afterwards the council was interrupted by a scout reporting a strange and incredibly large army coming down quickly from the mountains. There was no more time for planning, nor for Riku and Lea to share more than a few words before being dragged off to different locations. One of the officers from the meeting, a soldier half Lea’s size and twice his width, led Lea to the wall to join with the archers. He introduced himself as Yao.

“We’ve got a pretty good view from up here, just be careful not to hit any of our own.” he said. “Though that shouldn’t be a problem, those creatures hardly look human.”

“They are, though. In a way.” Lea said, looking out over the empty landscape. It looked beautiful, peaceful, if you could ignore the shadow moving down the mountain path. It was still pretty far off, but at that pace, it wouldn’t take long for it to reach the city. 

“Good thing you two came in time. we would have been pretty much unprepared otherwise.” Yao said. “Nothing has really happened here since Sora’s last visit.” 

“Hey guys!” came a voice from behind them, before Lea had time to answer. Probably a good thing, seeing as how Sora’s ability to pop up unwanted into conversations was starting to annoy him. Really, Lea liked Sora as much as anyone, but why the fuck did everyone love him so much?

“Mulan!” Yao said happily. “I thought you’d be with the vanguard.”

“I was. But Shang gave me pretty much the same speech you got.” the girl from the meeting answered, nodding towards Lea. “It wouldn’t usually have worked, but he was talking about protecting the emperor if things go bad and stuff like that. Your friend is a good teacher.”

Lea snorted.  
“He really isn’t.” 

“Well, If things seem to go bad on the battlefield, I will go and help.” Mulan said, smiling. “And you can tell Riku I forced you to come with me.”

Lea smiled back at her, deciding he liked this girl. Even if the knowing looks she gave him were irritating.

Despite the preparation and the wait, the battle begun suddenly, almost as a surprise for the soldiers. A large dragon-shaped heartless swept in over them, breathing ice down at the vanguard. As Lea sent firebolts towards it he realised Riku had been right. From the wall they could protect the soldiers on the ground from flying heartless, and provide help against the larger enemies.

As the defeated dragon released it’s heart to the sky the rest of the enemy reached the city. From Lea’s position high up on the walls it looked like a black sea had suddenly appeared underneath him. However, Riku’s silver hair made him visible among the darkness, and Lea tried to concentrate his fire on the surrounding enemies, easing Riku’s battle. Maleficent was nowhere to be seen.

Lea wasn’t sure how many heartless he had shot down from the air by the time the flyers seemed to realise there were people on the wall they could attack. Most of them were killed before they could make it to the wall, but enough got through that Lea was forced to turn his attention from Riku towards the threat at hand. The soldiers were not used to fighting flying enemies, and it showed. There was a moment of chaos at the wall, with people covering from attacks or foolishly swinging their swords around, trying to hit the airborne targets. Those with more sense kept a hold of their bows and tried to get into position to shoot, but the wall wasn’t so wide it didn’t impose serious restriction on their movement. 

Mulan and Yao seemed to be the only ones still on top of things, Mulan being agile enough to avoid most attacks and Yao being short and stout enough to make ducking and keeping one’s balance easy. Lea felt right at home, alternating between his chakrams and his keyblade and taking down heartless by the dozen. He didn’t want to risk any of his more powerful attacks among so many soldiers, though. The risk of them being caught in the literal crossfire was too great.

They were lucky, Lea supposed as he watched yet another heart get released, that Maleficent had gone for quantity rather than quality in her army. If she had sent a dozen or so of the really powerful heartless to attack at the same time they would have been in serious trouble, but as it was, Lea had only seen two or three powerhouses, and only one airborne. The rest were cannon fodder, though there were enough of them to make the battle difficult. Besides, he was starting to get tired.

When the sky around him was reasonably clear of heartless Lea looked down at the ground again. He couldn’t see Riku anywhere, but the soldiers were still fighting. There were plenty of heartless to shoot down, but Lea thought he could actually see patches of the ground in between the dark shapes now. Some rather large heartless were twirling lances at the soldiers and causing trouble by the gates, and Lea concentrated his fire on them, though his eyes kept wandering around the field, looking for silver hair.

The atmosphere on the wall became lighter as the heartless became fewer. Where there had been a seemingly endless amount of dark creatures, it now seemed to be possible to count them. Their numbers were still great, but so were the numbers of soldiers still standing. 

“Hey, we might actually win this!” Lea heard Yao say as he was shooting down a small dragon chasing soldiers on the ground. He sounded surprised, and Lea had to admit he shared the feeling. It hadn’t been easy, exactly, but it still had been _too_ easy.

A sudden, high pitched shriek filled the air. Lea braced himself, preparing for whatever enemy would appear...except none came. Instead all the remaining heartless turned back towards the mountain they came from. Lea blinked, surprised. A cold feeling of dread filled him as his fellow soldiers started to shout in celebration of their victory.

“I’m getting down there!” Lea said, already running towards the stairs. “Something’s wrong!”

“I’m coming with you!” Mulan said, falling into step with him. “I lost track of Shang on the battlefield some time ago.”

“Riku too.” Lea said. “I think he might have found Maleficent somewhere on the mountain.”

“The sorceress?” Mulan asked as they ran. “You think that’s why the heartless turned around, to protect their mistress?” 

“Maybe. They’ll need backup.”

As they made it out of the gate Mulan ordered half the remaining soldiers to follow. There were a few disgruntled groans at the prospect of chasing the enemy up the mountain, but no one questioned her authority. They caught up with the heartless not far from the clearing where Riku had parked the gummi ship. Lea didn’t fear for the ship, it was well hidden and the heartless had other things to think about. Getting back to their master, for instance. Hitting them in the back as they hurried up the mountain almost felt like cheating, but Lea was too tired and worried to care.

There was the high pitched shriek again, much closer and louder this time. Lea hurried forward, hitting the heartless that were in his way and ignoring the rest. The soldiers could handle them. Whatever was making that noise was a tougher fish to fry. He ran through a pass between two cliffs, and came upon a wide, open space. The remains of a village long gone were sticking out of the snowy ground like gravestones. Something large was moving on the far side of the village. Lea thought he saw something red, but the setting sun cast a strange light on the snow, making it hard to see far.

“Shang!” Mulan shouted and ran hurriedly towards the shape, sword in hand. Lea followed her. As he came closer he could see that the shape was in fact a large heartless, larger than any he’d ever seen, Darksides included. Unlike the large ones, that had hardly been two thirds the size of this, they’d seen outside the city this one wasn’t dragon shaped. Rather it looked like a bird, all wings and feathers and a sharp beak. However, it wasn’t flying around. It walked clumsily towards the soldiers fighting it, trying to hit them with it’s beak or wind based magic attacks. In combination with the large number of smaller heartless gathering around, it wasn’t an ideal situation.

“Mulan!” the general exclaimed as they joined the fight. “Great, we could use the back up. I assume the city is safe?”

“Since every heartless decided to come here, yeah.” Lea answered. “Where’s Riku?”

“He stayed long enough to clip this monster’s wings, then ran after the guy who summoned it. He fled after realising he was losing the battle.” Shang said, rolling out of the way as a small whirlwind passed by from the monster bird. The whirlwind caught a couple of smaller heartless instead, sending them flying in all directions. 

“He?” Lea repeated, dismayed. “Pete is the one behind this? Good thing we’re winning, losing to that guy would have been really weak.” 

“Riku said something similar.” Shang nodded. The rest of the army had caught up with them by now. Lea briefly considered leaving them to deal with the monster and heading out to search for Riku, but he _was_ undoubtedly the best fighter of the bunch, and after spending the whole day on the sidelines Lea was starting to feel the need to prove it.

“Stand back!” he ordered the surrounding soldiers, then smirked at his enemy as he surrounded it by a wall of fire. The sight of flames seemed to cause panic in the monster bird, as it began manically moving around, burning itself on the surrounding fire a few times before it realised Lea was the enemy. Lea barely avoided the bird’s attempt to hit him the first time, but the second time the sharp beak actually managed to touch him. The creature was quicker than he had realised, or maybe he himself was slower than usual after having spent the entire day in battle. 

Gritting his teeth and ignoring the pain from his bleeding side Lea started to counterattack. One well aimed fiery chackram in each of the bird’s eyes later the battle was all but won. Without it’s eyes the creature was helpless. Lea could have simply waited for the creature to burn itself to a crisp on the flames, but opted to deliver the killing blow with his keyblade instead. As the heart was released he let the flames burn out. 

The soldiers had pretty much killed off all of the remaining heartless by the time Lea was finished. People were starting to pick up the wounded and heading back home. The battle was won, but Riku was nowhere to be seen. Lea started to get seriously worried. It was only Pete, but still… Pete had managed to summon an impressive amount of heartless, including a couple of really dangerous ones. He might still have had an ace up his sleeve.

“Shang, where was Riku headed?” Lea asked, turning towards the general, who frowned at him.

“I’m not sure.” he said. “The guy..Pete? seemed to be running around rather aimlessly, I don’t know in which direction they headed in the end. And you are in no condition to follow him, in any case. You’d better come back to the palace with us and wait.”

“It’s just a scratch.” Lea said, even though his body was trying to convince him otherwise. Mulan walked up to him, gently putting a hand on his shoulder. 

“Riku is strong, he’ll be ok.” she said. “But you need to rest up, and heal. Besides, for all we know Riku might be back at the palace already.”

Lea wanted to argue, but she was right. The wound itself wasn’t particularly big, but he was exhausted, and that made all the difference. When was the last time he had a decent night’s sleep? The tent in Pocahontas’ village? Maybe, but there had been a lot of tossing and turning and lying awake to stare at the boy beside him. Benbow inn? No, that wasn’t a full night, and he’d been drunk nonetheless. Back in Yen Sid’s tower then, how long ago was that? A week or so probably, maybe less. It felt a lot longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for reading! We'd love to hear what you think. ❤


	9. On fire within

Riku wasn’t there when they finally entered the palace. The emperor’s doctor dressed Lea’s wound as Lea demanded they’d send out a search party for his companion, but the emperor, though sympathetic, insisted they had no men to spare. The soldiers needed rest after the battle, and those still able to do so needed to guard the city in case of another attack. There had been too many men lost to search for them all.

“I’ll go and find him.” Lea said determinedly. “Just patch me up, and I’ll be on my way.”

“You can’t go anywhere before you’ve rested up.” Mulan insisted as the doctors finished tying the bandage around Lea’s stomach and helped him into a robe. 

“Watch me.” Lea said, getting up and walking out of the door. Mulan followed him, and repeated her concerns. Lea really hoped she wasn’t going to use physical violence to stop him. She seemed the type for it, and Lea had had enough fights for one day.

“Look, Riku is the reason this place is still standing, ok? The least you guys could do is help me find him.” Lea said tiredly as they walked out the front door of the palace. ”But I’m going, with or without you.”

“I’m touched.” came a chuckle from behind them. “But all I’m going to ask for in return is a bed for the night.”

“Riku!” Lea exclaimed, the wound in his side hurting as he spun around too quickly. Riku stood behind them smiling tiredly. He had burn marks and bruises on various places, but seemed to be fine otherwise. Lea walked over and gave him a hug.

“You had me worried, you bastard.” he said. He didn’t even think of if Riku would mind, even less if he’d hug back. Riku was there and the need to hug him was entirely for Lea’s own benefit. To make sure that he was really there, because he might as well admit it to himself, he had been terrified of losing Riku like he’d lost Roxas. Still, it felt like something melted inside him when he felt Riku’s hands on his back

“Sorry”, Riku muttered against his shoulder before they pulled away from each other. Lea tried to cover how much the small touch had affected him with a well placed “Whatever, if you’d lost to Pete I would’ve laughed”, but he doubted even Riku bought it. Judging by yet another annoying smirk from Mulan she didn’t either. 

A while ago he probably would have laughed, even if Riku had been seriously hurt. But not anymore.

“A room has already been prepared for you, and I’ll make sure they bring you some dinner. You must both be starving by now. Celebrations will wait until tomorrow, so we can all rest”, Mulan explained with a smile. 

“Thanks” Riku muttered and Lea nodded in agreement despite his mind still being stuck somewhere around the words ‘a room’. Well this was just going perfectly well, wasn’t it?

They followed Mulan back into the palace and soon she left them with a servant. “I will be in our quarters, please don’t hesitate to send a servant if there is anything you need.” She gave Lea a wink before heading off into another corridor and their “servant” continued down theirs.

The room was large and mostly empty. Some decorations hung on the walls, and there was a folding screen standing on one side, seemingly also mostly for decoration. The floor was completely covered in some sort of mat that felt soft under their feet as they stepped inside. Lea’s eyes, however, instantly noticed the bedding. Well, mostly it looked like two comforters on top of each other, placed in a corner, but that was it. Clearly wide enough for two people, but still, only one of them. 

Lea looked at Riku, wondering how the other would take that, but the boy hadn’t reacted to it at all. Then again, they’d slept right next to each other several times before, so why would he? It only felt different this time for Lea. Riku had already sat down on the floor and taken off his shoes, before collapsing with his head landing on the bedding.

“So what’s with the bath robe?”

Lea had just sat down and looked up in surprise, having completely forgotten he wasn’t in his usual clothes. “Oh, this…”, he muttered. “I just needed a bit of patching up, that bird thing got a bite of my tasty side.”

Riku sat up again and there was that furrow on his brows again, just like before. “Show me”, he said. Lea tried saying that no, it was fine, but he knew it was a battle he’d already lost.

“You know I’m good with my healing spells.” Lea couldn’t argue that, but he could point out that Riku himself was covered in bruises. Riku just rolled his eyes and reached out, pulling at Lea’s robe. Lea just threw his hands up, exclaiming “If you want me out of my clothes that much, fine!” and was rewarded with a glare. 

He opened the robe and pulled it off one shoulder, to show the wound. It wasn’t big or deep, really, but it did sting like a bitch. Now of course all that showed was a large patch of bandages, going all the way around his waist. He bit back a small sound as Riku’s hands were suddenly there, gently opening the bandages because it _hurt_. He must’ve bled enough for them to stick to the wound already. Chinese medicine in all its glory, but Lea was looking forward to Riku’s magic. He’d take any kind of magic from Riku.

Another stab of pain pulled him back from such thoughts as Riku pulled away the final layer of fabric covering his “tasty bits”. With a grunt he purposefully ignored Riku’s pointed stare and replied to the “not bad, you said” with a “whatever”. A couple of healing spells later, however, he was almost as good as new. Well, it would still take awhile to heal, but at least he wasn’t losing bodily fluids through it anymore. 

“Your turn” he muttered, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Before either of them had answered a lady opened the door and brought in a tray with food and tea. Lea noticed she was keeping her eyes on the floor and figured it was a local custom. 

“Bet the view was better down there than your white chest” Riku commented as the door had closed, quickly reaching out to pick up one of the sticks with some sort of meat on them. Oh. Right. 

“But you looked enough to notice it’s white”, Lea countered, wiggling his eyebrows while grabbing some food himself. He was indeed starving, Mulan had been right. Riku rolled his eyes and they ate in silence for the rest of the meal. Long enough for Lea to start worrying a bit about the sleeping arrangements again.

Which was of course pointless, however, as when they’d finished dinner Riku simply muttered “now sleep”, got up, pulled off his jeans (holy shit!) and lay down on the side closer to the wall, leaving lots of space for Lea. Lea’s eyes followed him the whole way and he stayed where he was, trying to will his mind to understand that there was nothing suggestive at all with sleeping next to Riku. Just like there’d never been before. It was harder than it sounded.

“You need to sleep too.”

Lea sighed. “Fine.”

He turned around and crawled onto the bedding. To not lie on his hurt side he had to face Riku, but he stayed on a suitable distance. He pulled the other comforter over both of them and closed his eyes. Maybe if he tried to pretend he was somewhere completely different he’d be able to fall asleep.

He probably did fall asleep at some point, because the next time he opened his eyes Riku’s face was there right in front of him in the dark. He must have turned around in his sleep, his eyes closed and his lips slightly open as he breathed slowly through his mouth. His hand was placed in front of his face and Lea couldn’t resist the urge to move his hand up and place it on top of Riku’s. With a smile he closed his eyes and fell asleep again, hand holding Riku’s.

 

Riku stood on the wall, watching the red sun rise over the city. Despite the early hour there were a lot of movement on the ground, people tending to the wounded, repairing damage and even preparing for the celebration feast that evening. Riku expected he and Lea would be long gone by then. 

Riku turned around as he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. Sora’s friend (Mulan was it?) gave him a smile as a greeting as she joined him.

“You’re up early.” she remarked. Riku barely avoided making a face at her. He would have prefered to sleep longer, to be honest, but he had woken up his hand in Lea’s and their faces just a few centimeters apart. It had been impossible to sleep after that.

Riku suddenly realised Mulan was watching him with a knowing smirk on her face. Disgruntled, he turned back to watching the dawn.

“So are you.” he retorted. She laughed.

“Shang always sleeps restlessly after a battle.” she said. “There’s only so much tossing and turning I can take in the mornings. He even talks in his sleep sometimes.”

“Huh.” Riku said, not sure how he was supposed to respond to that. She wasn’t finished, however.

“Is Lea like that as well?”

Riku blinked.

“I don’t know, he was sleeping like a rock when I left him.” Riku answered uncertainly. “Why?”

“He really likes you, you know.” 

“We’re just friends.” Riku said, laughing nervously, then as he noticed her disbelieving expression he added: “Really.”

“If you say so.” she shrugged. “You should probably get back to him, though. He might think you’ve left without him.”

“He knows I wouldn’t do that.” Riku said, but started walking back towards the palace anyway. Mulan remained on the wall, still smiling in his direction. Riku ignored her. In the corridor outside their room he met Ling, one of the soldiers he had fought beside yesterday, and had to pretend to be amused by a terrible joke Riku completely missed the punchline of. He used his wounded companion as an excuse to get away before the man could try to tell him more.

Lea had apparently just woken up as Riku entered the room. He was sitting up on the bedding and had apparently been in the middle of examining what was left of his injury, judging by the fact that he had no shirt on. 

“Hey, where did you run off to?” Lea asked, the tone of his voice mildly accusing. Riku shrugged.

“Woke up early and took a walk.” he said. “We should be getting going as soon as you’re ready. I want to know what has happened to the others.”

“You worried about Sora?” Lea asked, getting up from the bed and apparently looking around for his clothes.

“Nah, he can take care of himself.” Riku said. Truthfully he hadn’t even considered that Sora might be in trouble. “He’s defeated Maleficent...what? Three or four times already, I think. Besides, Donald and Goofy are with him. But they will be worried about us if we take too long.”

“Oh.” Lea said happily, but whether it was because of Riku’s answer of because he finally found his coat was up for interpretation. “I just realised I forgot to ask, you did get the data back, right?”

“Of course.” Riku said, fishing the disk out of his pocket. “Pete did manage to slip away in the end, though, but I doubt he’ll cause trouble again any time soon. I did beat him up pretty well.”

“Wish I could have been there.” Lea said, zipping up his coat. “Breakfast, then leave?”

Riku agreed. He had only planned on a small, quick breakfast, but in the end they were invited to eat with the emperor and the officers, and it took a long while to get away. The emperor even tried to insist they stay for the celebration in the evening, but Riku refused. After finally promising to give Sora everyone’s love, Riku and Lea made their way out of the city and back to the gummi ship.

They made a quick stop at Disney Castle to give Mickey back the data, and were informed that everyone else had already passed through. All the data was safe again. Mickey thanked them for their assistance in a way too official manner, but then he hugged Riku and gave Lea a handshake. Riku smiled.

The trip back to Yen Sid’s tower was spent in silence, and Riku found himself replaying Mulan’s words from earlier in his head, over and over again as he maneuvered between the Heartless ships. _He really likes you, you know._ Riku felt like he didn’t know. But this time sleeping so close had felt… _nice_. Very nice.

He took a quick look to his side, but Lea was staring out the window, lost in thought.

Just like Mickey had said everyone else had already returned when they arrived, and Riku was greeted by a grinning Sora, asking about what had happened and why it took so long. Telling them to come to the kitchen where “everyone was having pizza”. As Sora ran off again, expecting him to follow them Riku frowned. He didn’t get a hug.

“Not like we just ate or anything” Lea muttered with a small smile. Riku smiled back as they headed into the tower and down to the kitchen.

It was a good thing that they weren't hungry as most pizzas were already eaten. There was just an empty box where Riku's favorite Frutti di Mare should have been. Looking around he noticed Aqua was eating the final piece. Not that it really mattered.

They told their story, about the battle and the large bird-like heartless. They gave the greetings to Sora. Then Lea mentioned that Riku was "fucking badass the whole time" and Riku felt himself staring in surprise, a blush warming his cheeks. 

"So there are snowy mountains in that world?" Ventus suddenly asked and Sora replied enthusiastically. Before long Sora was explaining everything he knew and what he'd experienced, replying to both Ventus's and Kairi's questions as she had never heard about that adventure either. When Ven tried asking Lea about combining keyblade and chakram attacks. Lea just shrugged and explained something about it coming naturally. 

Riku felt all but forgotten. 

When Sora grinned at Aqua with a blush covering all of his face for the fifth time Riku got up and left the room.

 

Lea's eyes followed Riku's back until it disappeared through the door. He hadn't said a word. A small grain of worry settled in his stomach. Was he okay? He was probably still tired?

With a sigh he returned to the piece of pepperoni pizza in front of him. He supposed they'd gotten it in Twilight Town. It had been a surprise to find out that the town was connected to the tower by a magical train. He could just imagine the stories the train must have caused. Maybe Roxas would've known.

"Hey umm, Lea... Could I talk to you for a moment?" Ventus. Oh.

"Uhh… sure." What could the boy want?

"Great!" Ventus got up and headed to the door but Lea hesitated for a moment. He felt Sora's eyes on him, and as he turned to him Sora gave him an encouraging grin, as if he knew exactly what was going on. Whatever. He might as well listen to what the boy had to say.

With a sigh he got up and followed Ventus. He found him a few metres from the door outside the kitchen and Lea placed himself next to him, leaning against the wall and gave him a questioning look.

"I'm not sure if you remember me, as me…"

"I do. Now. I remembered."

Ventus grinned in a way that was so different to any face Roxas had ever worn. 

"I remember we promised to fight again."

"I guess we did, yeah." He didn't look at Ventus. They were both quiet for a little while.

"I don't know what's happened these last twelve years, but I… figure that's what makes you avoid me. But I'm not him, and I, I'd like to be your friend." Another grin, with a tad of sadness at the edges.

Lea grunted in reply, not really knowing what to say. He knew that. Boy, did he know that. And somehow he'd already had the chance to leave it all behind, he'd already… Fallen for someone else. But even so, seeing Roxas's face looking so different, so not Roxas, hurt. 

And that pissed him off. He threw away the popsicle stick, he decided to leave it behind, why couldn't he just smile at this guy and tell him that "of course"?

He might as well. Try at least.

"Name's Lea. L-E-A. Got it memorized?" 

Ventus chuckled. "Yup, ages ago."

"That's good. Well, I'm ready to pass out so… Kick your ass later."

And so he left. All he could think of was that he needed to talk to Riku. He didn't want the company of these people, he didn't really know them. But he knew Riku.

So he knocked on Riku's door and waited for a reaction but none came. Maybe Riku wasn't even in his room? After another moment he gently pushed the handle down, opening the door. The room was completely dark.

"Riku?"

There was no answer but as he opened the door a bit wider the light from the corridor showed someone sitting on the bed, knees pulled up to their chest. He considered asking one more time, but in the end that didn't feel worth the trouble. Closing the door behind him he walked in and sat down on the end of Riku's bed. 

"You okay?" he asked, feeling like Riku's obvious gloominess was a priority compared to Ventus. Suddenly wanting to put a smile on that face that was now looking at him, his brows furrowed in a completely different way than in the Land of Dragons.

He shrugged and asked "Why are you here?".

"You disappeared and... Then that Ventus wanted to talk and I just..." He actually considered his next words for a little while. "I felt like I needed to see you."

Riku kept looking at him without a word, as if expecting him to continue. Lea did with a sigh.

“The thing is, I've met him before. Ventus. In Radiant Garden long before Roxas came into my life and he remembers it too. I can't help but wonder... Did I like Roxas because I recognized him?" He was looking at his own hands by now, playing with the seams by the zipper on his coat. "But, he's completely different and I shouldn't..."

He let out a deep breath. "Whatever." He turned on the bed, shifting so that he was mostly facing Riku. "Sora got you down?"

Riku's head fell back against the wall. "Not exactly." He took a deep breath. "Sort of."

Lea leaned down and pulled off his boots so he could move a bit closer. Sitting with his legs crossed in front of Riku he tried again.

"Sort of? I'm too stupid for such vague expressions." The small smile that pulled at the corner of Riku's mouth set off some sort of warm explosion in Lea's chest.

"It felt like I didn't belong."

Lea snorted softly. "Then we're two."

Riku's hand was beautiful when it swept his bangs out of his face.

"It's always been us two, even with Kairi there what truly mattered was always us. Even if Sora would never feel exactly the same his attention was always on me. Maybe I got addicted." He chuckled sadly and Lea found it hard to define what he felt.

"Maybe that's it. Sora's a drug and I'm having withdrawal symptoms. Maybe I felt like I paid enough to have him forever by giving up so much for him when the truth is that Sora has the right to enjoy spending time with whoever he likes… I know he doesn’t mean to, but he-”

Riku’s hand moved up to his face again and as Lea’s eyes followed it he saw the small tear fall down RIku’s cheek, the little light coming in from the window making it shine. 

“...Makes me feel so alone. Like I just--”

Lea wasn’t even sure when he’d moved, but he was on his knees now, leaning his weight on one hand and reaching out to wipe away that single tear from Riku’s face. Riku lifted his head at the touch, looking straight at him and even in the dark his eyes were so intense. Lea let his hand fall from Riku’s cheek, moving it down along his arm to his hand that was still resting on his knee. Gently he lifted it and interlaced their fingers, eyes locked on Riku’s fingers between his own. It felt a bit different than holding his hand the previous night, but not in a bad way.

“I’m not planning on going anywhere” he mumbled. “I think I might have found somewhere I could belong.”

Any other time he would have gagged at such overly sweet words. But what to do when he meant them completely. There was no Roxas, and there had been nothing else to live for than him. But now when he was hurt Riku made him feel better. Riku with his beautiful aquamarine eyes and strong _sexy_ arms and silver hair that never stayed out of his face. _His face._

When he looked up Riku was still staring at him. Slowly he leaned forward, and as he did Riku’s eyes slipped closed almost as in anticipation. Riku’s legs straightened out of the way and Lea closed the rest of the distance between them, closing his own eyes in the process. For a few seconds he just stayed with his face mere centimetres from Riku’s. If Riku didn’t want this this was his chance. He could pull away.

And then he felt Riku’s lips on his. Warm and so right. His hand slid back up along Riku’s arm into his hair, stroking through the strands, something he’d wanted to do for days. Their lips kept moving against each other, the taste of Riku almost intoxicating. 

He pulled away for just a little while as Riku’s hands travelled up his back. “Are you--” he started but Riku’s lips interrupted him in an almost desperate way. They were both desperate. Desperate for a connection, for a reason to exist and for closeness. That was it.

He answered the kiss with as much intensity and when Riku’s hands found the zipper of his coat he dared moving his own hand underneath Riku’s vest and up along his side. A sharp intake of breath and Riku was pushing him backwards, kiss broken and lips instead latching onto Lea’s neck.

As he fell back against the bed, Riku on top of him, muttering Lea’s name against his skin, he realised that he would do anything for this boy. He’d travel anywhere, he’d fight anything, he’d even learn how to swim, as long as Riku would look at him with those eyes. As his coat was unzipped all the way and Riku muttered “mine too” in that tone that sent shivers up Lea’s spine, he found himself giving into that irresistible authority. Hands hurriedly opened Riku’s vest, impatient to wait to feel Riku’s skin on his. They were way past the point of no return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We hope ending this chapter like that isn't disappointing. We felt like anything more simply doesn't fit the theme and mood of this fic, and it just felt right this way. Thanks for reading again, we hope you enjoyed and are happy to hear what you think! ❤


	10. Beyond this morning

Riku woke up with hair in his mouth. It wasn’t unheard of, really, but hadn’t he cut his hair? Surely it wasn’t long enough yet for it to… Riku’s mind went blank as he realised the hair was red.

For a long time he just lay there, frozen, listening to but not really registering the sound of Lea’s rhythmic breathing. It wasn’t until Riku realised he could feel the breathing rather than hear it that his paralysis broke. 

Careful not to wake the other Riku stated untangling himself from Lea. Thankfully they had both been sleeping on their sides rather than on top of each other, but Lea still made a disgruntled noise as his face was removed from Riku’s chest. Riku suspected his heart had actually stopped at the sound, but as Lea continued sleeping peacefully he finally dared get up from the bed and into the shower.

Somehow the coldest water available wasn’t cold enough to clear Riku’s head. It was impossible to think, to plan, to excuse. His mind kept focusing on one thought, a thought that was unreasonable, impossible, even stupid, yet undeniably true. The proof was still sleeping in Riku’s bed.

_I slept with Lea._

Riku numbly turned off the water. He was already clean, and shivering besides, but the shower hadn’t been able to clean his mind as it had his body. Thankful he had apparently collected his clothes before entering the shower, though he couldn’t actually remember doing so, Riku got dressed and tiptoed out of his room. If Lea woke up...Riku had no idea what he would do. Scream, most likely. Or kill him. Or himself. Riku didn’t know. All he knew was that he needed fresh air.

The tower was quiet as Riku walked down the stairs. It was too early for anyone to be up yet. Or it should have been. When he passed the kitchen a door opened and the runner up on the list of people Riku really didn’t want to see right now walked through. 

Sora.

“Hey, Riku. How’s it going?” Sora said, smiling brightly as he noticed him. “You disappeared last night. Did something…”

Riku fled. He was out of the tower before he had time to reflect on what he was doing. Sora would suspect something. Riku should have at least made up some excuse, but he couldn’t even look into Sora’s face right now, much less lie to it. He needed to find somewhere quiet, and solitary, to try and sort out his thoughts, but the grounds of Yen Sid’s tower were much too small. Riku jumped on the magic train car to Twilight Town.

Inside the empty car Riku started to feel more secure. No one would bother him until the train arrived in Twilight Town. He had time to think. If his brain would just stop telling him that one thing on repeat. 

 

The room was empty when Lea woke up. It shouldn’t have bothered him so much, really. Riku was one of the mythical creatures known as early wakers after all. It had been the same thing yesterday morning. 

But things changed last night.

Lea couldn’t help grinning at the state of the bed, and the fact that his clothes were scattered all over the floor. He felt lighter, somehow. Like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. Lea had finally admitted to himself that his feeling towards Riku was more than just fleeting physical attraction. As for Riku’s feelings, Lea didn't really know, but at least Riku wasn’t indifferent to him. Last night had proved that.

Lea scratched his head as he looked around the room for signs of the boy’s whereabouts. His clothes were gone, and he hadn’t left a note or anything like that. Not a good sign, but Riku tended to do as he liked. It didn’t have to mean anything.

Yawning, Lea got up to take a shower, hoping Riku would be back by the time he was finished. However, Riku never showed up, and waiting in his room like a lovesick puppy seemed a little pathetic to Lea. He got dressed and opened the door to leave the room.

“Wha…?” 

Lea turned around to see Kairi watching him from the far end of the corridor. Her eyes were wide in surprise. Lea winked smugly at her and moved on towards the stairs, towards the kitchen. Behind him Kairi made a high pitched sound that may or may not have been approval. Lea smirked as he walked down the stairs.

“Good morning.” Ventus greeted Lea as he entered the kitchen. Riku wasn’t there, but it wasn’t like Lea had expected him to be, anyway. He returned Ventus greeting surprisingly easily and went on to make toast. About halfway through the meal Sora appeared, looking around with a rather worried expression on his face.

“You guys seen Riku around?” he asked, and Lea put down his toast. It suddenly lost all it’s taste.

“Why? Is he gone?” Lea asked carefully. 

“I’m not sure. I figured something was up when he ran away from me early this morning, but I haven't been able to find him since.” Sora said. “I don’t know where he went.”

So that’s how it was, then. Lea’s heart was heavy as he threw the remains of his breakfast in the trash.

“Don’t worry, I’ll find him.” Lea said as he passed Sora on his way out of the kitchen. “I have a feeling I know what’s wrong, anyway.”

He didn’t wait around to hear Sora’s answer, if there was one. Lea was pretty sure Riku wasn’t in the tower anymore, or Sora would’ve found him. Which meant Twilight Town, seeing as how the gummi ship was still in it’s hangar. But Twilight Town was big. Lea spent the entire train ride thinking about where Riku was most likely to go. A solitary spot, definitely.

He ruled out the Clocktower. That was his thing, not Riku’s. Riku would know that would have been the first place he looked, and Riku probably didn’t want to be found. The manor was unlikely, liked with memories of Sora as it was. That left the tunnels and Sunset hill. 

Lea checked the tunnels first, but found nothing except for a few nobodies. However, as he walked up Sunset Hill he immediately knew he had found the right spot. He had gotten practice at recognising Riku’s hair from a distance. Riku was sitting at the edge of the hill. Inexplicably there was a large dog laying beside him, and Riku was absentmindedly petting it’s head. Lea decided to announce himself before he could become jealous of the animal.

“Hey.” he said. Riku didn’t turn around, nor startle. The bastard had probably known he was there all along. Lea didn’t want to start a fight, but he was getting angry. Trying to keep his voice calm, he continued.

“Look, everyone is worried about you. You should come back to the tower with me.” he said. The dog was watching him now, but Riku was still turned away. Suddenly Lea was furious.

“Goddamnit, Riku! At least look at me!” he yelled, and Riku finally turned around. Lea was shocked by how scared he looked. Was this really the same guy that had given an emperor orders just two days ago? Or pushed Lea down in bed yesterday?

The dog was growling at him, but Lea ignored it. His anger had faded. He walked over and sat down beside Riku on the other side, at what he judged was an appropriate distance, though all he wanted to do was to put his arms around the boy, who was, after all, just a boy. 

“This is about last night, isn’t it?” Lea asked, though he already knew the answer. Riku looked away again. “‘Cause you don’t have to think so hard about it, you know.” 

“I just…” Riku started weakly, his voice cracked like he had been shouting a lot. Or crying. Shit!

“I just don’t know what happened last night.” Riku said, and Lea almost laughed.

“Really? I remember pretty clearly. We weren’t even drunk.” Lea said, hoping he didn’t sound angry. He probably did, because Riku flinched.

“That’s not what I meant! I don’t get how… why we...” he tried, then buried his head in his hands. “It’s confusing.” he finally said, and realisation hit Lea so hard he could have fallen off the edge. 

“It was your first time, wasn’t it?” he asked quietly. Riku didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. Now the whole thing made perfect sense, and Lea couldn’t believe he hadn’t realised it before.

“Well...” Lea begun, wondering what to say, then reached over and touched Riku’s shoulder. “Hey, look at me.”

Riku turned toward his head, and Lea grinned at him.

“It was good, though, wasn’t it? For the both of us. No need to think too hard about it.” he said. Riku’s eyes widened in surprise, and Lea allowed himself a laugh. “Right?”

“I guess.” Riku said uncertainly. “You’re saying I’m overthinking it?”

“Sure. These things happen.” Lea said, leaning back with his hands behind him. “Nothing to worry about.”

“I see.” Riku said, giving Lea a slight smile as he stood up. “I guess we should head back to the tower, then.”

“You sure?” Lea asked. “We can stay longer if you want to.”

“I should head back. I freaked out in front of Sora earlier, and he’s probably worried.” Riku said, hesitating at the first step of the stairs leading down the hill. “These things happen, right.”

“Right.” Lea confirmed, wondering where Riku was going with this.

“Oh, well. It won’t happen again.” Riku said, turning to walk away with the dog following. 

Lea stared after him, slowly realising that he had just managed convince Riku last night had been nothing but a meaningless one night stand. 

_SHIT!_

 

Riku found Sora in Yen Sid’s library. Unsurprisingly he wasn’t reading, but rather seemed to be in the middle of an intense discussion with Aqua and Ventus. Battle techniques, judging by their hand movements. Riku considered coming back later, but Sora immediately excused himself as he caught Riku’s eye. It felt good somehow, knowing he was still considered a priority, but not as good as Riku would have thought.

“Riku! There you are.” Sora smiled as he walked over, happy but slightly unsure. “Did Lea find you?”

“Yeah, he did.” Riku said. “Look, about this morning… I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to talk to anyone just then.”

“It’s ok.” Sora said, frowning. He looked almost sad.

“I’m really sorry.” Riku repeated, and Sora shook his head.

“It’s ok, really.” Sora said. “It’s just… since when can’t you talk to me about your problems?”

Riku blinked, completely taken aback. 

“It...it wasn’t really that kind of problem.” Riku answered lamely. Sora nodded sadly.

“But you know I would listen anyway, right?” he said, and Riku smiled, thankful for the sentiment, even if there was no way he was going to talk to Sora about this. Ever.

“Thanks. I know.” Riku said. “So, battle techniques?”

Sora finally looked happy again as he started to tell Riku about the moves they had tried out earlier. Riku followed Sora back to where Aqua and Ventus were waiting, and joined the discussion. Seeing Sora glow at every technique Aqua complimented him for should have hurt, but it didn’t. Riku didn’t reflect further on that. He figured he had had enough of feelings for one day, and instead lost himself in the study of that which was more familiar to him, namely fighting. After they moved the conversation into the courtyard he even managed to pick up some useful techniques from Ventus, and Riku and Sora demonstrated some of their combo moves. 

He was starting to feel accepted again.

 

Lea paced around in his room, trying to figure out what to do. He had only tried to comfort Riku, but boy, did it backfire! He’d made it seem like he didn’t care about anything but the physical, when the whole point was that he did. So much it hurt.

On the plus side he had apparently managed to make Riku feel better. Lea could see him from the window, training with Sora and the others like Lea didn’t exist. Well, good for him. Now Lea was the only one who wasn’t wanted anywhere.

Ok, so maybe that wasn’t entirely fair. Riku did care about him to some extent, Lea knew that. Or at least Riku had cared before Lea made himself seem like a sex-crazed asshole! Ok, again, probably not entirely true, but still the root of his problem. Any come-on from Lea now would just be viewed as an attempt to get into Riku’s pants again, and Riku had explicitly said he didn’t want that to happen, the reason for which Lea desperately hoped wasn’t some misguided loyalty towards Sora.

Sora. Always Sora. Lea watched as they started demonstrating combo moves down the ground. Riku and Sora were spinning around each other like they had never done anything else, perfectly complementing the other’s movements. Like some crazy mating dance. Lea didn’t want to watch anymore. How the hell was he supposed to compete with a bond that deep?

Lea threw himself down on his bed and decided to go to sleep, even if it was still early in the afternoon. He didn’t feel like talking to anyone anymore today. A guy could only take so much, and he’d had enough. Part of him wondered if life without a heart hadn’t been easier after all.

The sound of someone knocking at his door woke Lea up a couple of hours later. If he hadn’t been so sleepy he would probably had ignored it, but he had automatically gotten up and opened the door before he remembered he’d even had that option. Probably a good thing, as Riku was the one standing outside his door.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” he said as he took in Lea’s sleepy appearance. 

“Doesn’t matter.” Lea said, yawning as he leaned against the doorframe. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much, just wondering where you were hiding.” Riku smiled. “I haven’t seen you since we got back.”

“Well, I had some sleep to cash in.” Lea said, trying to sound calm though his insides were dancing with joy. Riku had noticed he wasn’t around. Which meant Riku had wanted him around. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

_Shit!_ Did Lea just say that? Was that too much? He looked worryingly at Riku, but he just blushed slightly. 

“I guess not.” he said, with a nervous tone in his voice. “Anyway, if you’re up for it I think you should join the rest of us in training. I talked to Aqua about spells, and it seems she knows some pretty powerful fire based ones you might be interested in.”

“Huh.” Lea said, considering this. On the one hand you could never have too many fire spells, but on the other hand his bed still looked really comfortable.

“Also Ventus said something about you hiding because you’re afraid of him beating you.”

“He said what?” Lea repeated, fully awake now. “Oh, he’s going down. Come on!”

Lea had the pleasure of hearing Riku laugh as they hurried down the stairs.

There was nothing surprising in him winning, the kid had been asleep for over a decade after all. But it still felt good. Ventus had fought well and Lea was sure he was gonna beat him one day, but that was still years away. It also felt good to notice that he himself had improved quite a bit too. Just a few tricks and moves he’d picked up along his few adventures with Riku.

He tried catching Riku’s attention a few times, but it didn’t work. The boy was doing more combos with Sora, and as Aqua started demonstrating those fire-based spells he didn’t really have an excuse to look away. But Riku had been right. Some of the spells were really nifty.

Soon enough the gang started quitting for the night, one by one. Lea’s eyes once again followed Riku’s back as he left for his room, this time wishing he could go with him. Ventus was the last one to leave, and Lea was left alone. Having slept earlier and with the adrenaline from the training he wasn’t really tired. But he was hungry.

He hadn’t eaten anything since the toast he threw away most of that morning. He was giving another toast a try and it was working out just fine, it was delicious actually, when Kairi’s voice interrupted him.

“Lea? Still up?”

He sighed and put down the toast. “Yeah. Don’t feel like sleeping.” She took that as some sort of hint he wanted company, because she came and sat down opposite of him.

“What about Riku?”

“What about him?” He just wanted to eat his toast. 

“Is he sleeping alone tonight?”

_Right._ He’d almost forgotten Kairi saw him coming out of Riku’s room that morning. That had all been before he’d become a sex-crazed asshole, so it felt weirdly long ago. “Yes, that’s the way he wants it”, he explained with a sigh.

“Why do you say that?” she asked, and he could hear how curious she was in her voice.

“Long story short, we did things and now he thinks it was a purely sexual one time thing.”

“When…”

“I’m pretty much head over heels in love with him.”

“I knew it. So… Tell him?”

Lea chuckled bitterly. “How do you tell someone you like them? I’ve never actually told anyone.”

“Me neither.”

“So you’ve never been in love?” he asked, a bit surprised.

“Hmm… I think I really liked Sora before. But I don’t know. I only knew four guys and two of them left me at home to go save the world and the other two threw balls at each other.” She laughed and Lea joined in. She was actually pretty nice.

“Sorry for kidnapping you, by the way”

“I know, Sora told me.” She grinned. “Maybe you should ask Sora for advice, he knows Riku the best.” He nodded. “Or Aqua, she’s older and has more experience?”  
Lea almost choked on his drink.

“Well. Depends on how many Darksides she fell in love with in the darkness.”

She laughed again. “So, how old are you anyway?” she asked, and for the first time it really hit Lea that he was in fact much older than these kids. Even if you didn’t count his years as a nobody, Lea was still older. 

“It depends on how you count”, he muttered, avoiding her eyes.

“Oh well, not like it matters! I’m gonna get some sleep and you are gonna figure out a way to tell Riku about your feelings.” She was pointing at his face with her index finger at the last part, a determination in her eyes telling him that doing what she said was a good idea. 

“Yes Ma’am!” he replied with a grin.

He figured talking to Aqua really wasn’t a bad idea. The next day he went about things normally, smiled at Riku and joked with everyone. But he was also looking for a chance to talk to Aqua alone. And suddenly he understood Riku’s frustration better, because wherever Aqua went, Sora was there. Aqua didn’t seem to mind one bit, but it was inconvenient for Lea.

In the afternoon he gave in to schemes and told Sora Riku wanted to talk to him. It was easy and within seconds he had Aqua for himself. He didn’t feel bad about it at all. Though, that was when he realised he hadn’t actually thought of what to say to Aqua. He’d just concentrated on getting to talk to her alone.

“So umm, can I talk to you for a second?”

She looked up, then to where Sora had disappeared off to and you could see her get it. “Sure. What’s so important, Lea?”

Well. What’s the point of beating around the bush. “Have you ever told a guy you like them? Or girl, for that matter, if that’s what floats your boat.”

She stared at him for a moment and boy, was it awkward. Then he got a simple “No”.

He sighed. “What’s with everyone here having no love lives whatsoever.”

“Well, I did get asked out once.”

“Tell me more.” Lea said, with honest enthusiasm.

“That’s it. I didn’t go.” She answered sheepishly. “I always just cared about becoming a keyblade master and sticking with my friends. I hoped it’d be the three of us forever.” She stared at nothing for a little while, lost in thoughts, before adding “I guess by now I might not say no. But why are you asking?”

Lea smirked. “There might be someone closer than you think. And well, I just want to make someone understand I… love them. And I have about as little experience in that department as most people here it seems.”

Aqua chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder. “Try asking them on a date.”

“The thought crossed my mind, but the last time I was in love I tried that about 300 times and he still didn’t get it.”

Aqua laughed and wished him good luck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading again! ❤ Hope you enjoyed it. Just one more chapter to go, actually. 
> 
> Please do tell us what you think!


	11. And nothing is broken

How it happened, Riku had no idea, but they were for some reason going to spend a day at Destiny Islands. All of them. On the beach. He had a feeling Sora was to blame, but it could have been Kairi too. Either way, it was quite nice to be back home. 

Everything was still exactly as they’d left it after Mickey had called them to Yen Sid’s tower. When he’d picked up Kairi before he hadn’t come out to their usual island, so it had been a while. It had been weird to realise that everyone, even Lea, had actually been to Destiny Islands before. 

Sora was the first one to run straight into the water, and Ventus and Kairi followed almost right away. Aqua and Lea just sat down on the beach. Riku considered joining them because he actually wanted to spend some time with Lea, because even if it had just been a day since things happened, he already missed him a little. They talked, but it felt like Lea was holding back.

He didn’t know what to think, at first he’d been so relieved when Lea explained it was just a one night thing. It didn’t matter, he didn’t have to think about it. But then he just kept thinking about it anyway. And the next night he had felt so cold and lonely, like his comforter wasn’t warm enough. 

Then Sora shouted his name from the water, waving enthusiastically, and the choice was made for him. The easier one at that. He left his clothes by Aqua and Lea and pretended not to notice Lea staring at him. One time was one time. Without a word he headed for the water.

It was refreshing and fun and they tried both splash wars and tag in the water. Before long Sora and Ventus were shouting at Aqua and Lea to come join them. From the water they could see them sharing a few words before Aqua came walking. Lea, however, stayed. Riku knew why but it was still sad. Or maybe that’s why it was sad. He would’ve felt better with Lea there with them. 

After another game of tag he decided to do something about it. Telling the others that he’d be back in a while got out of the water, straight to where Lea was sitting. He stopped right in front of Lea, water dripping from his hair. When Lea looked up he almost regretted his decision. Lea’s eyes swept up along his body before reaching his face and Riku could feel his cheeks getting hot.

“I-I’ll teach you how to swim. Follow me.” He turned around and walked along the beach, under the bridge to the other side of the tiny island. He hoped Lea was following him. Over there it would be a bit more private. He supposed not knowing how to swim was a bit embarrassing.

They stopped under the broken bridge, where the freshwater spring joined with the ocean. Riku remembered the numerous times he and Sora had raced there, jumping on the palm trees to be the first one to the star-shaped tree. He couldn't remember who won the last race, though.

“So how are we doing this thing?” Lea said, watching Riku with his arms folded on his chest. 

“First of all, take off your coat.” Riku grinned.

“Not much for foreplay, are you?” Lea laughed, but he sounded a bit nervous, and hesitated with one hand on his zipper.

“Seriously, take it off.” Riku said. “It will drag you down into the water, and you’ll drown.”

“Not if I don’t get in the water it won’t.” Lea said stubbornly. Riku rolled his eyes.

“If you don’t I’ll tell Sora and Kairi you can’t swim, and they will insist on teaching you. Publically. In front of everybody.” Riku threatened, still smiling as he walked out toward the water. “Now take of your clothes and come here.”

“So forceful.” Lea said, but he obeyed, and Riku could have sworn he was blushing. He tried not to stare at Lea’s bare skin as the other joined him. They walked until water reached Riku’s waist. Lea had folded his arms again, looking exceedingly nervous. It was strange to Riku that someone could be so uncomfortable in such shallow water, but it wasn’t like he didn’t understand.

“Ok. First things first: can you float?” Riku asked. It sure hadn’t seemed like it back in the bayou, but Lea had been panicked at the time. 

“Not without magic, I can’t.” Lea answered. “Hey, have you actually taught anyone to swim before? Or is this another one of those ‘don’t fight it, feel it’-kind of lessons?”

“Pretty much.” Riku laughed. “But don’t worry, I won’t let you drown. And swimming is as easy as summoning a keyblade, once you get the hang of it.”

“I feel so reassured.” Lea said, but followed Riku’s instructions without further complaint, giving one hand for Riku to hold as he attempted not to sink. In the beginning he had troubles staying still to keep afloat, though.

“Relax, Lea.” Riku said, as the other made himself ready to try again. “I won’t let you go. Trust me.”

It worked. Lea visibly relaxed, and managed to stay afloat a long time. Riku even suspected he was beginning to enjoy it. 

“Good work, now let’s move on.” Riku said, and laughed at the disgruntled face Lea made. “There’s more to swimming than just floating around, you know.”

“But it’s not nearly as comfortable.” Lea complained as he stood up in the water again. His wet hair lay long down his shoulders, and Riku’s traitorous eyes kept wanting to follow drops of water as they ran down Lea’s bare chest. He’d never really given himself the chance to look closely at Lea’s body, but now really wasn’t the time.

“We’ll see. Give me your other hand.” Riku said, forcing his voice steady. “Now, try keeping yourself vertical by kicking. I’ll help keeping you above the surface, so don’t worry about that. Oh, and don’t bother splashing so much, either. It really doesn’t help.”

Lea’s grin told Riku that he’d done it on purpose, The fact that he was starting to joke around was a good thing. It meant he was beginning to feel comfortable in the water, and that was all swimming was about, in the end. 

They tried a couple of other, rather improvised exercises as Riku wasn’t really sure how swimming was properly taught. He honestly couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t known how to swim himself. It was as natural as walking to him. Kairi would probably had been a better teacher, as she had to learn it after arriving on Destiny Islands all those years ago. He remembered how shocked he and Sora had been when she said she said she couldn’t swim, and how guilty they had felt about making her cry afterwards. When they saw her again a few weeks later she swam like a fish, and all was fine again.

“Well, I think it’s time you tried it on your own.” Riku finally said, and Lea suddenly looked nervous again.

“What happened to ‘I won’t let you go’?” he asked, obviously only half joking. Riku smiled reassuringly at him.

“I’ll still be here if you run into trouble.” Riku said. “But I think you’re good enough to make it on your own. Besides, it’s not like the water is deep.”

Lea hesitated, then nodded and sank into the water again. It went fine for a while, and Riku could see Lea was starting to get it, but then something happened. Riku wasn’t sure what it was, if Lea grew forgetful or happened to breathe in water or something else entirely, but Riku immediately saw that Lea started to panic, and swam over there. Lea hadn’t even begun to sink when Riku reached him and grabbed a hold of him to keep him steady as he found a foothold again. Lea was coughing from getting water in his lungs, but he seemed to calm down quickly enough. However, he had grabbed Riku’s shoulder when trying to regain his balance, and he wasn’t letting go. Riku found he didn’t really want him to.

“You ok?” Riku asked quietly, and Lea nodded.

“Yeah. I made it for a while there, didn’t I?” he said. Riku smiled at him, trying to act unaffected by the close proximity to the other man. Lea’s hand was warm on his shoulder, and Riku suddenly realised he still had his hands on Lea’s arms.

“Yes, you were doing great.” Riku said, laughing nervously. “We’ll make a swimmer out of you yet.”

Lea grinned at him, and opened his mouth to speak.

“Riku! Lea! Where are you? We’re going to eat now!” 

It was Sora’s voice from the distance, and Riku felt both relieved and disappointed as he let go of Lea and turned towards the shore.

“We should head back.” Riku said. “I’m starving.”

“Right.” Lea said, sounding unconvinced but following Riku out of the water anyway. When they reached the other shore they saw that the others had lit a campfire and were happily roasting sausages and vegetables over it. Lea complained that they had lit the fire without him, and got a few laughs in return. 

“Where did you two run off to?” Kairi asked Riku as she handed him a stick with some food. She sounded far too knowing for Riku to like it, and he made a mental note to ask Lea about that. In the meantime he could take a small revenge.

“Swimming lesson.” Riku answered quietly. Kairi looked surprised, like she hadn’t expected such a straightforward answer. Riku was glad he had managed not to blush.

“Oh, that makes sense.” she said finally, and they joined the others in front of the fire. Lea had somehow ended up between Aqua and Ventus, so Riku sat down by Sora instead. He smiled happily towards him.

“Reminds you of the old days, doesn’t it?” he said, and Riku had to agree.

“The crowd is a bit different, though.” he answered. “I wonder if the others still come here.”

“I doubt it.” Kairi said from Riku’s other side. “The shack was so full of spider webs and dust I don’t think we’ll ever be able to clean it. It might be best to just burn it all.”

“I think I know someone who could help with that.” Riku laughed, catching Lea’s eye from behind the fire. 

It got pretty late before they headed back to the tower. Most of them opted to go to bed immediately. Riku was determined to avoid Lea’s searching gaze. He didn’t want to enter into a relationship that was purely physical, no matter how good it felt. He was so concentrated at not looking at Lea that he almost jumped when Sora touched his arm.

“Can we talk?” Sora asked, and Riku nodded, following Sora to his room. Riku looked around when they entered, suddenly realising he’d never been there before. Come to think of it, Sora probably hadn’t ever been in his room, either. It was a strange feeling.

“So what’s up?” Riku asked when Sora didn’t say anything. Sora still hesitated.

“Have you ever liked somebody and not been sure what to do about it?” Sora finally asked, and Riku just barely resisted the impulse to laugh at the irony of Sora asking him that question.

“Sure.” Riku managed to say. “This is about Aqua, isn’t it?”

Sora blushed, but didn’t actually seem that embarrassed about it.

“Is it really that obvious?” he smiled, and now Riku did laugh.

“You wear your heart on your sleeve, Sora.” he said. “Though trust me, I’m the last person you should ask for advice. Have you talked to Kairi about it?”

“I did, yeah. Since she’s a girl.” Sora said, scratching his head. “But she said she couldn’t help, so I figured I’d ask you. Besides, she said you were dealing with a similar situation”

_That bastard!_

“Sora, I have no more experience with girls than you do.”Riku said truthfully. “And I think my situation is different from yours.”

“But you like someone, right?” Sora said. “So you must have some kind of plan. You always have a plan to get what you want.”

“Not this time. Anyway, I don’t really have a good track record with plans, do I?” Riku said. “But if you really want my advice, I think you should just ask her out. She’s blind if she doesn’t know how you feel, and if she was going to reject you she would have done so already.”

“Easy for you to say.” Sora sighed, and Riku realised that yes, it actually was. He didn’t feel jealous at all. When Sora hugged him and wished him luck with his own situation Riku felt nothing but the years of friendship between them. There was a sense of closure as he walked towards his own room. He found he sincerely wished Sora to be happy with whoever he chose, even if he and Aqua would make weird couple, and Riku no longer wished it would be with him. Without truly realising when it had happened, he had moved on.

Sora had made him realise something else as well; he didn’t have to deal with this alone, there were no shame in asking friends for help. Talking with Sora or Kairi still seemed wrong, somehow. Riku wasn’t sure they’d understand. 

Riku sighed as he entered his room, wondering when he’d have a chance to talk to Mickey again.

 

Lea had been tossing and turning for most of the night, but he was still no closer to finding an answer. That day on the beach had been so _promising_ , with the shirtless Riku and the swimming lessons and the touching and so on. Hell, at the end, when they were standing close together in the water, Lea was pretty sure Riku would have responded if Lea had kissed him. He had planned to, but then they got interrupted, and Riku had looked so _relieved_. What’s up with that?

Sighing, Lea gave up on getting any more sleep and went down to the kitchen to make breakfast. It was early for him to be up, but apparently the normal time for Riku, who was sitting at the breakfast table eating yogurt when Lea entered.

“No way!” Riku said when he saw Lea. “It’s awake! Are there pigs flying outside as well? Or is the world just ending?”

“Asshole.” Lea muttered, proceeding to make toast. Riku made a face at him when he was finished and sat down to eat.

“How can you eat that? The bread is almost black.” he remarked.

“You’re very charming today.” Lea said, and Riku laughed.

“I’m in a good mood.” he smiled. Lea finally took a good look at him, and realised it was true. Riku looked _happy_. It was a really good look on him, but Lea dreaded what it might mean for himself. Especially since Riku disappeared with Sora last night.

“Did something good happen?” he asked carefully. Riku shrugged.

“I lost a burden I’ve been carrying a long time, is all.” he said as he finished his yogurth. “I’ve got to go talk to Yen Sid. See you later.”

Riku disappeared out the door, and Lea was left trying to interpret the vague answer. He could think of two possibilities, one of which was very much in his favour, and the other very much not. Lea sighed, and resigned himself to his fate as he went to look for Sora.

Lea found him in the garden some time later. Sora was alone for once, practising the _Zero Gravity_ -spell on things around him. He didn’t look very concentrated though.

“Hey, can I talk to you?” Lea asked. Sora looked surprised, like he hadn’t even noticed him standing there. He nodded as he let the floating rocks and potted plants fall back to the floor.

“It’s about Riku.” Lea begun, then didn’t really know how to continue. In the end he didn’t have to worry about it.

“Hah!” Sora exclaimed triumphantly. Lea just blinked in surprise as Sora started laughing.

“Sorry, it’s just… I knew something was going on with you two. I just knew it!” he said. “Riku didn’t want to say anything, but I figured it was about you.”

“I take it you’ll help me then.” Lea said, a grin spreading on his face. This was going way better than expected. 

“Sure, but I don’t think you need my help.” Sora said. “You know what Riku told me last night? ‘Just ask her out.’ I think that’s all you need to do, as well.”

“I don’t know if he’ll believe I’m serious, though.” Lea said. “I might have accidentally made him think I wasn’t.”

“It’ll be fine, as long as you’re honest about it.” Sora said dismissively. “I’m pretty sure he likes you, anyway.”

Sora was quiet for a while, then smiled mischievously.

“So… any tips on how to ask people out?”

 

Riku knocked on the door to Yen Sid’s study, hoping the sorcerer wasn’t busy. This wasn’t exactly a matter that he could disturb him with in that case. When Yen Sid gave him permission to enter he did so, relieved.

“Master Riku. What brings you here?”

“Master Yen Sid”, Riku started, “I’d like to ask for permission to travel to Disney Castle.”

The sorcerer stroked his beard in that typical way, that somehow always made Riku feel a bit worried. 

“What for, my boy?”

Riku swallowed. Honesty was probably the best route, and there was nothing wrong in his request. It was just a bit silly. “I’d like to visit King Mickey. I’d like to talk to him as a friend.”

“Hmmm.” The beard stroking continued, but there was a sudden gleam in the Master’s eyes. “Very well, my boy, enjoy your trip. And send Mickey my greetings.”

“Thank you, master!” Riku replied with a big smile and excused himself right away.

He left in a hurry, before anyone had the chance to notice him going anywhere. He wanted to talk to Mickey alone. All that time in the darkness, and so many times when he’d felt lost and alone, Mickey had always been there for him. Now it was something very different on his mind, but he trusted Mickey’s judgement more than anything. He was sure this would help.

Chip and Dale helped him land and greeted him enthusiastically. He asked them to send a message that he was there and they “Roger”ed it, before running off. Riku hurried on further into the castle. In the end he found Mickey in the same library Maleficent had already attacked twice.

“Riku! I heard you’d come!” the mouse said, as he looked up.

“King Mickey, sorry to intrude like this.”

“Aww Riku, you are always welcome!” Mickey got up from the chair and gave Riku a hug. Riku had to lean down to hug him back, but gladly did so. He could feel Mickey rubbing his cheek against him in a sign of affection and Riku felt warm all through. He should’ve come to Mickey right away. But he supposed he wasn’t ready until that talk with Sora.

“So. What’s troubling you, Riku?” Mickey asked once they were both seated by the table. A tray with tea had appeared from nowhere and Mickey was pouring them a cup each. It smelled delicious.

“I think I might be in love.”

Mickey looked up with a huge smile on his face, nearly spilling tea over the table. “That’s great Riku! I’m happy for you!”

“Take it easy”, Riku chuckled, taking the tea pan from Mickey’s hand. “I think it’s just me though. He doesn’t like me back that way.”

“Aww, why would you think that?”

“Well, he... he said it was just something that happens sometimes”, Riku explained, playing with his tea cup.

“Falling in love?”

“No-- he meant…” Riku looked up and Mickey was looking at him with a gentle smile on his face, like he really didn’t believe Riku. It felt somewhat weird, because he trusted Mickey. He’d trusted Mickey to help him with this, but what was Mickey implying?

“Riku, you should follow your heart. Go and talk to the boy.”

Was it really that easy? Mickey had always been right, there was no reason not to trust him now. And Riku couldn’t deny it anymore, he wanted to be with Lea. If there was maybe any chance that it wasn’t just physical for Lea… That maybe Lea actually was over Roxas and had taken a liking to Riku. But why would he have said that back then in that case?

The only way to find out was to talk to him.

Once Riku got back to the tower the sun was almost going down already. But he was determined. After a quick run to his room he’d try to find Lea. If he didn’t do it right away he might not do it at all, and right now Mickey’s sure words were still ringing in his head. Follow your heart. Follow your heart.

As he opened his door and turned on the light his eyes found a folded piece of paper on the floor. It looked like it’d been pushed in through the gap between the door and the floor. Riku picked it up and opened it.

“Meet me at the clock tower. I’d like to talk.”

Suddenly his heart was beating faster as he read the note one more time. It could only be from Lea. Come to think of it, he had never seen Lea’s handwriting before, but these letters just somehow screamed Lea. Riku smiled to himself at the thought, that he could recognize Lea in it even though he’d never seen it before. It felt nice.

There was no time written out on the paper, and Riku had been gone for hours. Hopefully Lea would still be there. He really, really hoped so. 

Riku wasn't sure if he'd even ran up this many stairs this fast before. It was ridiculous, really. What sort of a place to hang out on was the top of a clock tower anyway? He knew it was an important place for Lea, and that it involved Roxas, something that had caused a seed of worry to grow in Riku. He needed answers.

A few steps before the top he stopped to catch his breath. Just to calm down a little bit. Breathe in, breathe out. Lea might not even be there anymore.

But he was. He was leaning against the wall of the tower, eyes closed and his long legs reaching all the way to the edge, feet hanging in the air. He looked like he belonged there.

"Hi." Riku said, and Lea's eyes shot open. Riku sat down next to him without a word, suddenly feeling a blush creeping up his cheeks at the thought of how desperately he'd run up those stairs.

"I was getting worried you wouldn't come." Lea mumbled next to him.

"I... Sorry, I came right away when I saw the note."

"Don't worry about it", Lea chuckled. "The ice cream I bought is long since melted, but that's it."

"I'm sorry", Riku mumbled and turned to look at Lea. Lea was already watching him, something warm in his eyes and a smile on his lips. 

"I'm just glad you're here", he said and Riku's heart was running a marathon again. Lea was so close. They weren't touching, but Riku could feel the heat Lea radiated all over his side. All it would take would be to move a few centimetres to the side and they'd touch.

But he'd come here to talk.

"What was it you wanted to talk about?" he asked. Lea's eyes left him for a moment and he looked almost scared. He was still looking out over the city when he continued and Riku's eyes were glued to the way the twilight framed his red hair.

"What I said before didn't really come out the way I meant it."

He was quiet for a second or two and Riku had to close his eyes and take a deep breath.

"I meant that... Sometimes you just..." Riku wasn’t sure if he’d ever felt this nervous in his hole life. Every second felt like an eternity. At last Lea sighed and continued. “...fall in love.”

When Riku opened his eyes Lea was looking at him again, this time with an almost painful look on his face. Riku didn’t like it, not at all. Lea looked a lot better when he was smiling or grinning. He looked so alive, and that was one of the things that Riku loved about him. _Loved_.

Just one thing.

“I’m not Roxas” he mumbled. He had to say it.

Lea’s laugh sounded both bitter and happy at the same time. “Believe me, do I know. You’re much more vain to start with. And you roll around a lot less in your sleep. You’re also wonderfully sarcastic and fucking hot when giving out orders.” 

Riku didn’t know what to say. His face was hotter than ever and when Lea put his hand over his it felt like his skin was on fire. He knew Lea wanted him to look at him, to give some kind of reply, he just had to gather his feelings for a few seconds. He really wasn’t good at this stuff.

He turned his hand over and slipped his fingers in between Lea’s. Then he took a deep breath and started. “I was happy this morning because I talked to Sora and realised I was completely over him. That someone else had taken his place. Then I went and talked to Mickey. He told me to follow my heart, so, that’s what I’m planning to do. Cheesy as it sounds.” He chuckled.

When he turned to smile at Lea, the man had sat up straighter and their faces were barely inches apart. Lea was grinning so happily, all doubt gone from his face. He was beautiful. When Lea’s other hand came up and stroked along his cheek, down along neck to nestle in the hair at the nape of his neck Riku took a sudden hitched breath.

“Tell me to kiss you”, Lea whispered, and Riku had to swallow, his mind suddenly getting all fuzzy.

“Kiss me” he said, his voice as demanding as he could manage at the moment.

Lea’s lips covered his and he responded instantly. But this time it wasn’t desperate, it was just warm and more _right_. Lea tasted like ice cream and RIku figured he’d eaten the ones he’d brought while waiting. He chuckled into the kiss as a wave of _oh god I love this man so much_ hit him.

As the last rays of sunlight disappeared behind the horizon of Twilight Town Riku found himself pushing Lea backwards against the tower and Lea’s moan of approval fed the fire in his body. And heart. Lea was all he could think of. And for now all that he wanted to think of. _Lea._

**THE END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it (for now)!  
> We really hope you enjoyed this little story. Thank you for reading every week! We've been very happy to contribute to this pairing, because it is sadly way too underrated. Hope we did well!
> 
> Sandra & Bettina
> 
> PS. Keep your eyes open the following days.


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